


Braunii

by KaceyRenee_X



Category: Finder no Hyouteki | Finder Series
Genre: Children, Family Fluff, I don't know what I'm doing, Kidnapping, M/M, fluff?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-05
Updated: 2017-08-05
Packaged: 2018-07-29 12:42:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 31,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7684936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaceyRenee_X/pseuds/KaceyRenee_X
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kirishima finds a thief at one of Asami's clubs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A kidnapping or a rescue?

**Author's Note:**

> All recognisable characters are from Ayano-sensei's Finder series, I own nothing (I would love to have my own Asami...)
> 
> I read a lot of Finder fics from the sidelines, and I've always hated that there aren't more. So I thought, instead of complaining about it, I should write my own... So yay, here you go.  
> Also, Happy belated Birthday Asami!  
> I didn't write this for Asami's birthday, I was meant to upload it a few days ago but I accidently doubled the length while 'editing' (oops)
> 
> This story could be a series, but I really don't know where I'm going with it. I've thought of a few endings, but I haven't got the inspiration or motivation to continue this. This is the first story I've written in years, and I've completely forgotten how to write...  
> In fact, I'm forgetting English (I blame the fact that I'm studying a degree in Japanese...)  
>  **Anyway** , if anyone is bored and wants to continue this you're welcome to! Just let me know so I can read it too

Kirishima Kei knocked on the large door in front of him, on hearing a voice inside, he pushed the door open. A desk sat in front of a ceiling to floor window, the view of the city from it was stunning, especially at night - but their line of work gave them little time to admire the view. Despite a few lose strands of hair falling onto his forehead, the man behind the desk looked immaculate in his 3-piece suit and Italian loafers. Kirishima waited until the man gave a soft nod before speaking.

"Asami-sama, we have a slight... problem" Kirishima said with a sigh, as he adjusted the glasses on his face. The golden eyed man behind the desk gave away nothing with his expression; the man watched as his right hand man walked further into the room and place a laptop onto his desk

"A problem you say?" Asami Ryuichi questioned, raising a single eyebrow. Kirishima wasn’t one to be vague; the fact that his friend also seemed uncharacteristically irritated told Asami that the so-called _problem_ was more of an annoyance. Deciding it would be better to _show_ his boss instead of trying to explain further, Kirishima opened the laptop. Following a hunch, Kirishima had been going through hours of security footage and had been shocked to find that they had a small intruder. Asami stared down at the screen, a small chuckle escaping his lips as he watched a young boy grab a small variety of foods from the kitchen, stuff them into a drawstring bag before escaping through the same ventilation window that he had used to enter the building. 

"Ah, that explains the odd stock numbers that were reported" Asami said, before leaning back in his chair, "it seems that my clubs have no defences against brats" a certain blonde photographer came to his mind, he knew that Takaba Akihito had managed to sneak into a number of his clubs on several occasions, despite having high levels of security 

"Asami-sama, how should we proceed?" Kirishima wasn’t sure how to handle this particular case. There were many things that Asami didn't tolerate, stealing from him was one of them - but the culprit here was a child, no older than 10-years of age. Asami didn't get children involved in his business, but in this case the child had involved themselves

"Find all the information you can about the brat" Asami pulled a cigarette from his pocket, "check previous surveillance footage, I want to know how often the brat shows up" he placed the cigarette between his lips, Kirishima quickly moved forward to light it

"I've already checked the past 2 weeks of footage Asami-sama, so far the child has picked up a habit of visiting at 2am on a Wednesday, they seem to have worked out when the change of shifts is and only stay during the crossover" Kirishima hated to admit it, but the kid was quite smart. The only surveillance camera they had caught the child on was the one located inside of the kitchen, it was well hidden and only a few members of staff knew its exact location. The kid managed to stay in the blind spots of all of the cameras that surrounded the perimeter of the building. Nodding as he took in this piece of information, Asami stubbed out his cigarette and picked up the report he had been reading before Kirishima had entered

"I also want a report from the manager to explain why they were unable to work out a mere child was stealing from them" Kirishima took that as a sign that he was dismissed, bowing, he excused himself, taking the laptop with him as he returned to his own office. Suoh Kazumi was already waiting there, reading over the information that Kirishima had already gathered. 

"How'd he take it?" Suoh asked, knowing that Kirishima would understand what he was referring to without needing to waste anymore words. 

"I'm hoping this isn't going to be another Sudou Shuu, but it’s starting to look that way. It’s a pain in the ass having to find new managers" Kirishima groaned as he rubbed his face and sat down at his desk, he wanted to down a bottle of scotch but the work day wasn’t over yet and he was sure Asami wouldn’t appreciate his dependable secretary being drunk.  
Club Braunii was currently still worth the trouble its management was causing. The club was aimed at the younger generation, but unlike Dracaena, it wasn't exclusive to the higher class, yet still held high class feel to it. The club was new, but an excellent advertisement campaign and its link to Dracaena made it popular before the club’s doors first opened to the public.  
After the _mess_ with Sudou Shuu, the ex manager of Dracaena, Kirishima had spent hours searching for someone else that was suitable for the role. Sudou’s connection to the modelling world had been the main part of what made Dracaena successful, for the club to continue to thrive, that link needed to remain. Then, they had the saga of clearing the clubs name – the rumours and the disappearance of Sudou had scared away more than a two dozen members.

“You’ll live” Suoh said, a smile breaking out on his face as he patted Kirishima’s head. 

“That’s easy for you to say, I’ll remind you of that next time some idiot decides to go against Asami and Takaba goes awol” Kirishima said, hoping to nip the teasing in the bud before it started, but they both knew that anything to do with Akihito would cause them both headaches. Kirishima let out another defeated sigh before resuming with his work; if the next couple of weeks were going to be busy he wanted to get as much mundane work out of the way as possible. 

 

It was 35 minutes passed midnight when Asami arrived at the penthouse, which was relatively early for the gold eyed man. Asami kicked off his shoes, placed them neatly in the genkan, and followed the noise coming from the living room. Akihito sat on the floor in front of the sofa with a towel wrapped around his neck as he flicked through the channels on the TV trying to find something interesting to watch. Akihito felt Asami's presence before he heard him, since living together, Akihito had been slowly getting used to how quiet Asami could be - it didn't stop Asami from sneaking up on him from time to time but it meant that if Asami did want to catch him unawares he actually had to put a bit of effort in, which was enough to make Akihito feel less sullen about the whole thing

"Welcome home, how was your day?" Akihito asked the remote still resting in his hand, but his eyes were now on Asami as the man removed his jacket. 

"I'm home" Asami loosened his tie as he sat on sofa behind Akihito, "There's a thief at one of my clubs, it appears" Asami said - over time they had come to discuss their days with each other. Asami found that Akihito was more willing to share information if he did the same, it was a small price to pay to know what his wayward lover was doing.

"A thief?" Akihito asked, the shock evident in his expression and voice, "who the hell in their right mind would steal from _you_ " Akihito had seen that people either bowed down to Asami or were powerful enough to stand beside him, like Fei Long - there was no in-between, not unless they wanted to end up at the bottom of Tokyo Bay. 

"A child, it seems my clubs attract brats like moths to a light" Asami said, his characteristic smirk plastered on his face. It took Akihito a few second to realise that Asami was referring to him, Asami could pinpoint the exact moment each thought passed through the boys head as his expression changed from the one of shock, to slight confusion and then a glare, "you've managed to sneak into my clubs on several occasions, something many people have failed to do"

"Good, bastard, I told you I'd catch you in my viewfinder" Akihito grumped, folding his arms across his chest. Chuckling, Asami ruffled the boy’s hair - Akihito didn't bother to bat the offensive hand away, and instead leaned into Asami's touch. Over time it had become tiring to fight Asami at every corner and the need to prove himself to irrelevant outsiders disappeared. The fact that he wasn't in the same class as Asami, didn't have much power on his own and didn't have bucket loads of money to throw away didn't mean he couldn't stay by Asami's side. Akihito was part of Asami's private life (he tried to stay out of Asami's business life, but every lead in Tokyo somehow led him right to the man's feet) and Asami he chosen him, out of all the beautiful, rich and powerful people, Asami had chosen him. 

"Hey, Asami, what are you doing to do... With the kid I mean..." While he sulked, the kid had been on his mind. Akihito knew better than to hope that Asami would let the police deal with the affair

"I'm going to have a chat with them... Why, are you worried - do you think I'm a monster who'd hurt a defenceless child?" Asami said, amusement lacing his words. Akihito felt guilty for a second, knowing he had been thinking just that, but quickly pushed the feeling away - Asami wasn't offended, the bastard. Akihito finally slapped the hand that had been resting on his head

"Don't joke, Bastard. I'm serious; you're going to terrify the kid... What are they stealing anyway, and how old are they?" Akihito felt sorry for them, he mentally cursed himself for getting emotionally involved when he didn't know the full story - by now experience should have taught him not to assume everyone had good intensions

"They've been stealing food, and anything that is left hanging around, jewellery and phones for example. As for the age, one of them is 9 years old and the other is 4" Kirishima had managed to find out all of the information they needed regarding the children before Asami had left the office, the file now sat in his briefcase. Asami leaned forward and flicked open the latches of the case, being careful not to hit Akihito (who had slowly shuffled closer until he was practically sitting between Asami's legs). Asami handed the bundle of papers to Akihito, who opened his mouth to question but stop when his eyes landed on a photo.

"These are the kids?" Akihito asked, the picture showed a young boy with dirty blonde hair holding hands with a little girl who smiled brightly at the camera. The girl's hair was a lighter shade of blonde than the older boy's, but apart from that they were a spitting image of each other. The documents that followed gave more of an insight to the children, Akihito was glad that for once he wasn't placing trust into people who didn't deserve it. The children were siblings and had been orphans for the majority of their lives. The pair had been left at an orphanage when Fuyumi was 6 months old and Ryouta was 5 years old - there was no information about the parents of the children - the rest of the documents listed short reports on the children's growth, schooling and previous foster parents. The last report was one by the police, listing the children as missing

"We don't know, but the reports suggest that they ran away so they could stay together. A couple wanted to adopt the girl, but didn't care for having an older boy" Asami explained, he had been watching as Akihito flicked through the pages.

"That was 6 months ago, how haven't the police found them yet?" Akihito shoved the report back into Asami's briefcase, it was painful to look at, "it’s cruel, why would you want to separate siblings - if they only wanted one kid they should go adopt an only child" Asami didn't reply to any of Akihito's question, they weren’t aimed at him - instead he pulled his younger lover onto his lap, tightening his hold around the boy’s waist when Akihito unsuccessful tried to wiggle away. 

"I'm coming with you, I'm not letting you scare them - you're a sadistic bastard, you'd find it funny too... And it’s not one of your rivals so you can't stop me from getting involved" Akihito wasn't sure if Asami would mind, but being defensive and stubborn was a natural response, he had no intention of letting this go. Asami already knew that he big hearted lover wouldn't be able to ignore this, he stuck his nose into things he shouldn't when it involved selfish people, corrupt government officials and people who were as deep in the underworld as Asami was. Akihito, the kind idiot that shed tears and jumped into of a gun for Fei Long, a man who had kidnapped him - there was no way he would ignore two brats. Asami was sure he'd regret getting his lover involved, Akihito wouldn't let this rest until the kids were safe, happy and had enough money to pay for their education until graduating from a top class university.

"Yes, yes" Asami had had enough of the conversation, he pressed their lips together, silencing any protests Akihito had over being dismissed. Ignoring the usual fluttering feeling at the pit of his stomach, Akihito wrapped his arms around Asami's neck, twisting his body into a more comfortable position to receive the overpowering kiss. 

 

*

 

Akihito cancelled all of his photo shoots for the day, and had been rejecting any leads his boss had been giving him. It was finally Tuesday and Asami had rescheduled his night to make a stop at Braunii. Akihito didn’t want to risk getting stuck with a stubborn model or up a tree on a stake-out, he had long since decided that Asami was too sadistic to be left alone with children. When Asami left at 11am that morning, Akihito dragged his sore body out of their bed, mentally cursing Asami’s stamina, and focused on restocking the penthouse with food. Once the penthouse was clean and enough food to feed them for the next few days, Akihito sent a message to his friends inviting them to a night out at Braunii. At their enthusiastic agreement, Akihito dressed for the night and headed out to meet with them at a ramen bar nearer to the club. Akihito was the last to arrive at the ramen bar; he joined his friends at a secluded table and braced himself for the onslaught of questions.

“How the hell did you get us onto the guest list for Braunii, Tamaki has been waiting since before the place opened and he still haven’t got in” Kou asked, a huge grin on his face. Akihito groaned, he had hoped his friends didn’t know how hard it was to get onto the guest list. Akihito felt a twinge of guilt, it had been too easy for him. 

“Ah… Well… I kind of know the owner, and they set it up for me” Akihito said, he was slowly getting used to accepting things from Asami, but he hated feeling like he was only with Asami for the benefits. While Kou talked happily and gloated to their other friends via messages, Takato silently watched Akihito – it was happening more and more often that Akihito did something out of the blue like this, last time Akihito had turned up in a sports car and insisted that they take it for a drive. 

“The owner… Is it your older rich girlfriend?” Takato asked, he had been suspicious of Akihito’s ‘rich girlfriend’ for some time, it seemed strange that their friend avoided talking about the women. It was the longest Akihito had ever dated someone, and they were even living together, yet Akihito hadn’t introduced them yet. In fact, Akihito hardly ever talked about his lover – it was only when he was drunk that he’d let any information slip. Takato had considered more than once waiting until Akihito was drunk (it wouldn’t take much) before interrogating him, but he wanted Akihito to tell them on his own free will. No matter how long they had to wait, it would feel better than gaining the information through unethical means. Akihito nearly choked on his drink, a deep blush appearing on his face

“Y-yeah… That’s right, they own it” Akihito said, mentally cursing himself for getting flustered over the question, “ah, the food’s here” Akihito thanked the gods for the perfect timing, a server placed a tray on their table and bowed before leaving them to eat. Akihito avoided talking about Asami, he knew he’d slip up at some point and give away too much information – he wanted to tell his friends and parents but it had gone on so long now that it felt awkward. With his past girlfriends, he had introduced them to his friends before they officially started to date and to his parents after a few weeks of dating. He couldn’t pinpoint the exact date he started viewing Asami as a lover instead of a perverted-bastard, but he had been living with the man for 18 months. Akihito managed to get through the rest of their dinner without anymore mention of Asami, but his heart stopped when they stepped out of the bar. The limo sat on the curve, parked illegally on the roadside directly outside of the shop. Akihito tried to ignore it, telling himself that there are hundreds of limos in Tokyo, but Kirishima stepping out from the driver’s seat shattered his hopes. Asking his friends to wait at a safe distance, Akihito ran to the limo

“Don’t make a scene, just get in with your friends” Kirishima ordered once Akihito was within ear-shot

“Don’t make a scene, how the hell am I _not_ meant to make a scene. What are you doing, where’s Asami?” Akihito hissed, he was pissed but he really didn’t want to make a scene. There were too many people here, and he knew Kirishima could easily pick him up and throw him into the limo if the man wanted to. Kirishima stepped to the side, and made a hand gesture to the passenger side. Akihito bent slightly, Asami sat there, listening to the conversation with a smirk on his face

“Hello Akihito” Asami said, amusement evident in his voice, “I thought you and your friends would need a lift” It was the first time Akihito had seen Asami at the front of the limo, he still hated the idea of having his lover and friends in the same vehicle but he couldn’t ignore the fact that Asami was being _nice_ with his teasing. The whole thing would have been a lot worse if Asami had sat with them. Sighing, Akihito called his friends over, opening the door for them before Kirishima had the chance. Asami had given up his usual seat for Akihito’s sake, Akihito felt like the least he could do was accept the ride gracefully, and hope that Asami continued to stay out of sight.

“Let me guess, rich girlfriend’s car?” Takato said once they were settled inside and the limo pulled off, “that was really weird back there, the traffic cops gave another car a ticket but left this one alone” Takato had thought it was strange when the traffic cop drove past on a bike and completely ignored the limo, his confusion only rose when the same traffic cop stopped by another car that was illegally parked only a few metres down the road and wrote out a ticket. Akihito wasn’t sure how to respond, he couldn’t say that Asami had most of the police force under his thumb, and the fact that Asami was probably listening to this whole conversation didn’t help. 

“Does having money give you some kind of immunity pass or something, a different set of laws, on the door entry to reservation only restaurant…” Kou said, as he poked random buttons and played with the window controls, “you’re so lucky to have bagged yourself someone like that Aki-chan, I’m jealous” Kou was hoping that Akihito would introduce him to a few of the girlfriend’s friends – even if it was just for awhile he wanted to live the high life too. Akihito groaned, he really wanted to punch Asami for putting him in this situation, he could almost hear the bastard laughing behind the privacy screen. 

“Are we ever going to meet your girlfriend Aki-chan?” Takato asked finally deciding to be upfront, they had Akihito trapped, he was no escaping the conversation this time. 

“Yeah Aki-chan, we’re your best friends you should introduce us” Kou joined in, Akihito felt guilty enough without his friends helping, now would be a good opportunity to tell them, all he had to do was lower the privacy screen… But he had other things on his mind for that night, saving those children was priority.

“I will… I promise… Guys, I’m sorry I avoided this all for so long, it’ll make sense soon, really” Akihito wasn’t sure if he felt better or worse now that he was one step closer to telling his friends, “oh, guys we’re here” Akihito said, when he caught the sign for Braunii and the queue outside. Takato let Akihito escape the rest of the conversation, the promise of finally getting answers was enough, for now. Instead, he let himself get dragged out of the limo, Kou jumped out as soon as they had parked up. Akihito broke off from them and spoke softly to someone in the front of the limo, the window was barely cracked, and it was too dark for Takato to see passed the glass.  
After an envelope and a few words were exchanged, Akihito rejoined them and the limo sped off. They followed Akihito, feeling completely stunned, as they bypassed the queue and was let in through the VIP entrance. The club itself was all that it had made up to be, it was a Tuesday night and the club was nowhere near full – yet the atmosphere was still amazing. Akihito continued to lead them through the club, by now it was obvious to both of his friends that he had been there before, and up a set of stairs that led to a VIP seating area. A waitress escorted them to a booth, stating she’d be back with a bottle of champagne

“Aki, you’ve been here before haven’t you, you came without us!” Kou slapped the side of Akihito’s head, then remembered that they were in public and checked to make sure he hadn’t disturbed anyone – he was shocked to find that there was no one else anywhere near them, “do we have this section to ourselves, how did you-, oh wait yeah, your girlfriends owns this place” Kou wanted to kicked himself for forgetting so quickly.

“I came here before it opened…” Akihito mumbled, taking the bottle from the waitress who seemed to reappear from thin air, the woman bowed and left to return to her post, “I’ll let you guys know next time there’s something like this okay, please don’t kill me” he didn’t want them to complain about not getting invited, he had the opportunity to go to so many events he knew they’d love.

“We’ll let it slide this time Aki, for now, champagne!” Kou opened the bottle of champagne, he poured out three glasses and drank half of his own glass before his eye caught the name on the bottle, “holy shit, this thing cost at least 10,000 Yen!” Kou recognised the champagne from a European collection, it was cheap compared to others in the collection but it was still the most expensive thing he had even drunk. Signing, Akihito placed a card in front of each of his friends; the cards had been inside of the envelope Asami gave outside in the limo. 

“Don’t worry about the cost of anything, its cover under the membership, and we’re members somehow” Akihito wasn’t happy about accepting this gift, but he couldn’t argue with Asami about it without turning too many heads – the limo attracted enough attention. He had had enough of his friends bullying him for one day, after confirming that they could keep the membership, Akihito led them to the dance floor. It was only 10pm; there was still around 4 hours before the children would make an appearance. Despite being annoyed with the man, Akihito couldn’t help but think of those golden eyes as he danced with his friends. He imagined Asami watching him, and soon he no longer cared about the people around them – it was just him, Kou, Takato and _Asami_. 

 

*

 

Asami knew that Akihito wouldn’t accept the membership cards willingly, Akihito had complained before about Asami getting him into events for free when others had to pay a considerable amount for the privilege. Asami could still picture the flash of anger on the blonde’s face when he realised what the cards were. Kirishima parked up in their designated spot of Braunii’s car park – he was slowly getting used to how out of character his boss acted for Akihito. There was no other lover Asami would be so accommodating for, and he didn’t usually go handing out free memberships for his lovers and their friends.  
Kirishima briefly thought about Asami’s past lovers, most didn’t last more than a week, longer than 6 months was unheard of before Akihito came barging into their lives. As much as he hated to admit it, Kirishima was glad that Akihito was the one that finally stole Ryuichi’s heart – the boy was predictably unpredictable, he was guaranteed to land himself in trouble and he gave them headaches, but the brat had also brought an unheard of type of kindness to their usually grim lives. Takaba Akihito was a wild card. 

Suoh was waiting for them by the back door of Braunii with the manager by his side, the manager bowed deeply to Asami – offering an apology over the incompetence of their staff members then led them to the main office to give a full report. Asami glanced as his wristwatch as they walked, they still had 4 hours before the children would show up. Ruffling Akihito’s feathers had put him in a good mood, but he wasn’t sure how much of the managers babbling he would be able to take before shooting someone.  
Asami listened as Kirishima went through the club’s financial figures, as expected, the club was earning a lot of money and their profit margin was growing steadily but there were odd jumps in the numbers. Kirishima noticed a pattern, there was a sudden spike in the money going into the club’s account every Saturday, the income would be listed as anything from a group booking to a new membership being brought. Kirishima would have ignored it, it was the club’s busiest night so it was expected to make more money, but he had a nagging feeling every time he glanced over the reports. His suspicious were confirmed when he attempted to trace the payments, many were made by cash (which again was normal, since most people in Japan preferred cash over credit cards) but all of the transactions made by credit cards led to dead ends.  
They were using a diplomatic approach to resolving the problems, Asami wasn’t pleased with the strategy, it was the same thing they had done with Sudou and that had ended with Akihito (and Kuroda) getting injured. It would be quicker to drag each employee to a warehouse and interrogate them for answers, but there would be more mess to deal with afterwards. Asami ignored most of what was being said, instead he watched the flickers of emotion on the managers face as they spoke. The words spoken meant nothing but the cracks in the poker face spoke volumes. 

 

* 

 

The cold air helped to sober Akihito more than the glasses of water his friends had forced on him, the plan wasn’t to get drunk – but he had gotten carried away. He was a lightweight and the free alcohol didn’t help. Akihito let out a sigh and let his head rest on the brick wall behind him, he was sober enough now to be able to think straight but his head was still spinning

“… You really need to learn how to hold your drink, brat” Asami chuckled, Suoh had mentioned that he had noticed Akihito was drunk during his observations, but seeing the boy slumped against a wall was still amusing. 

“Shut up, bastard” Akihito mumbled, he didn’t open his eyes, he knew Asami was trying to get a reaction and he didn’t want to play into the bastard’s hand _every single time_ , “ugh, no, just give me a second for the ground to stop moving” Akihito whined as a hand tried to prise him away from the wall

“Would you like me to carry you, princess?” Kirishima backed away from Akihito hearing that, he didn’t want to be kicked again – the boy looked weak but he could pack a punch when he needed to. Akihito had been a good street fighter and was naturally excellent at parkour when they found him, after months of training with a number of professionals including Suoh, Kirishima wasn’t keen on the idea of getting in Akihito’s war path. The thin control Akihito was trying to have on his temper snapped, his eyes flew open and he pushed himself off of the wall – completely sober now. 

“No, don’t touch me, I’m fine – I can walk!” Akihito yelled, punching Asami’s chest as he man moved to lift him. Akihito found it embarrassing that Asami could throw him over his shoulder so easily, he hated as much as he loved how small he was in comparison to Asami. It was comforting and he felt safe in that embrace, but his pride as a man couldn’t take it. 

“Hmm, I thought you said you wanted romance, Akihito. Don’t you want me to whisk you off your feet?” Akihito regretted asking for romance now - it had been late one night, they had had too many beers with their dinner, Asami hadn’t kept his hands to himself and Akihito swore that he had been talking in his sleep. He thought Asami had dropped the whole humiliating incident.

“I’m not a _woman!_ ” Akihito hissed, his ears burning red, it felt just as embarrassing now as it did 8 months ago. 

“Ah, so that’s the problem. I’m sure we’d be able to get you a lovely customised wedding dress” Asami said thoughtfully, turning his head towards Suoh. Kirishima felt sorry for Akihito, he didn’t doubt for a second that Asami would buy a wedding dress just to piss the blonde off.

“And chest implants” Suoh added, failing to keep his lips from twitching. By now Kirishima was ignoring them all, it seemed like they had all had too much to drink and he was the only one still focused. Akihito didn’t linger on the implication of marriage, Asami had been bringing it up in jokes often lately.

“Don’t help him Suoh, and _you_. How many times do I have to tell you-” Akihito was slowly forgetting that he was meant to be staying relatively quiet, his voice rose with each word and he wanted nothing more than to punch Asami in the face. It was bad enough that he had his friends teasing him all night, now Asami was joining in and messing with his emotions too. 

“Shh”

“Don’t tell me to-” Asami pressed a hand over Akihito’s mouth, silencing him quicker than words could

“He’s here” Asami whispered, the deep scowl on Akihito’s face fell away, he followed Asami’s line of sight to a small open window. Kirishima had noticed the bottom of a shoe slipping through the window; a quick gesture had let Asami know. The noise they made as they walked towards the window had not put the child off, fortunately there was noise coming from all directions and the sounds of their whispered chatter had been drowned out by the blaring music, drunken singing from people getting fresh air and friends saying their lengthy goodbyes before catching their rides home. Kirishima stayed at the front of the group, bringing them to a halt once they were in perfect line of sight to the window but hidden by a wall. From where they were now crouching, Ryouta wouldn’t be able to see them before it was time.  
It didn’t take long, a silhouette appeared in the window after a few minutes. Ryouta adjusted the bag on his back, despite the amount of times he had done this, the drop to the floor from the window still scared him. He wished he could find somewhere else to get food, but this place was by far the best and it was worth the fear when he was able to buy new clothes and sweets for his little sister with the they money got for selling the few pieces of stolen goods. Taking a deep breath, Ryouta lowered himself until his arms were stretched then let go. He landed with little trouble, adjusted his bag once again then headed back to the alley a block away where Fuyumi was waiting for him. Asami’s hand finally dropped from Akihito’s mouth as they watched Ryouta dodge the camera’s and disappear around a corner.  
They didn’t waste time following after him, it would be too easy for the children to slip through the net if they lost him now. The street was empty, with the club in the opposite direction, there was nothing going on in the area so late at night. It wasn’t long before Ryouta realised he was being followed, he spun on his heels and stared with wide eyes at the 4 men staring at him. Ryouta had no idea who they were, but they were all dressed in suits and were adults. _Are they police officers_ , Ryouta asked himself – it was passed curfew, the police would ask too many questions if they brought him in, _and what would happen to Fuyumi_? Ryouta wasn’t sure if the adults were actually following him, or if they were really police, but he wasn’t willing to find out. 

“Hey – hey, wait” Akihito sighed as the child took off down the road, suddenly feeling guilty for all the times he ditched the guards Asami assigned to him in the past. He groaned again as Kirishima and Suoh ran after the child, “we’re really chasing him?” he felt better than he had 20 minutes ago, but Akihito wasn’t sure if his stomach would be able to handle an unexpected jog. 

“The offer still stands” Asami said, but didn’t stick around long enough to uphold the offer to carry him. Akihito was left stunned for a moment as he watched Asami’s back, it was only the second time since knowing that man that he had seen Asami run. At first, Asami’s teasing had always seemed patronising, but now Akihito could also take it as Asami’s way of showing affection. The realisation had made his heart constrict, and though they’ve never said the words, Akihito was in love and knew that the feeling was mutual.  
Akihito joined the chase, he was a few paces behind but watched as Ryouta took a sharp turn down an alleyway and the others followed. It was silent for a few seconds, all Akihito could hear were feet hitting the ground then there was a child’s yell. Akihito broke the corner in time to see Ryouta kick Suoh, the kick was ineffective and the body guard continued to block the boy from running any further down the alley. Kirishima and Asami were on the other side of the boy, slowly closing in, they had stayed behind when Suoh ran faster to get in front of Ryouta.

“It’s alright kid, we just want to talk – I’ll buy you ice-cream, okay?” both Kirishima and Akihito mentally cursed Asami for adding that last bit to the sentence, the plan was to get the children to trust them, not bully them. 

“Don’t mock me!” Ryouta yelled, kicking Suoh again but this time aiming for the family jewels. The attack was unexpected, Suoh was doubling over and groaning before he realised what was happening. Suoh let the kid fly passed him, he knew that Asami and Kirishima wouldn’t let him live down the fact that a kid had escaped him. Kirishima was next to grab hold of the child, but Ryouta was able to slip away like an eel, the hold doing nothing more than slowly his momentum. Ryouta thought he had escaped, he hadn’t noticed when Asami slipped directly into his path. 

“No, let me go!” Ryouta tried kicking again, but Asami held him at an angle that didn’t allow any of the kicks to land in a critical area, mainly nowhere near his male anatomy. Suoh made a call, arranging for the limo to meet them. It was mostly quiet again, apart from Ryouta’s yells, Akihito let out a sigh, he wasn’t sure if it was relief or defeat – it seemed more like they were kidnapping the children instead of helping them. But Akihito was also sure that no amount of words would have convinced Ryouta to come along with them quietly.  
Out of the corner of his eye Akihito saw movement, a small blonde girl watching the mayhem from behind a dustbin. The girl’s hands trembled, only one hand and part of her face weren’t hidden but her distress was obvious. Moving slowly, so not to bring attention to himself, Akihito began to head towards the young girl – he wasn’t sure if it was Fuyumi, Ryouta’s younger sister, but he didn’t want her to escape from them. 

“Run, Fuyumi!” Ryouta yelled, still trying to break free of the iron grip Asami had on him, Ryouta had no intention of going down without a fight – and he certainly didn’t want them to get hold of Fuyumi, that would make escaping more difficult. Fuyumi jumped, Ryouta’s yell startling her out of her trance. She stumbled, tripping over her own two feet as she tried to follow her brother’s order.

“Hey, hey, I got you” Akihito managed to grab hold of Fuyumi before she hit the floor face first, he picked her up, supporting her weight on his arm and hip, “don’t be afraid , Fuyumi, we’re not going to hurt you or your brother okay?” Akihito said, smiling softly at the girl – Fuyumi nodded at that, then looked in the direction she had last seen her brother

“Nii-chan…” Fuyumi whispered as she realised that Ryouta had disappeared from the alley – she knew he was nearby, she could still hear his yells of protest, but she hated having him out of her sight. 

“Ryouta-kun has gone to the limo first, have you ever been in a limo?” Akihito asked, still holding the girl in his arms, he walked towards the limo. As they walked and talked Fuyumi relaxed, and by the time they exited the alley Fuyumi had her arms wrapped tightly around Akihito’s neck. Kirishima stood by the door of the limo waiting for them, instead of opening the door as soon as he saw Akihito like he usually would, he waited until Akihito was directly in front of the door – blocking the escape route. With the door now open, Akihito could hear Ryouta’s defeated tone and Asami’s amused chuckles. 

“Ah, see, your little sister is behaving well. Aren’t you meant to be setting a good example?” Asami hadn’t expected Ryouta to fight capture as hard as the brat did. He had to admit, he had thought it would be as easy as stealing candy from a baby. 

“I am setting a good example, by not trusting _you_ , stupid kidnapper!” Ryouta was confused, at first he was sure that it was the police, but the police don’t drive in limos. Fuyumi crawled to where Ryouta sat, she had released her death grip on Akihito once the limo started moving. Ryouta pulled Fuyumi onto his lap, holding her tightly as he glared at the other people in the car, “what do you want from us, we don’t have any money or anything” Ryouta couldn’t think of any good reason for these people to have captured them, he thought for a second that it was something to do with the things he stole but he was sure that no cameras had caught him

“That’s a lie, I’m sure you have plenty of things from my club in that bag there” Asami said pointing to the bag on Ryouta’s back, Ryouta could feel his heart beating out of his chest – it was to do with the club and this man was the owner

“I didn’t do anything, you have no proof!” Ryouta had gotten caught stealing many times for the first 2 months, he learnt from other children on the streets how to be smart with where and what he stole. Ryouta had also figured out that people were less likely to get angry if Fuyumi were to steal something. To make sure that Fuyumi’s naivety to do with stealing remained the same, Ryouta never spoke about it – Fuyumi didn’t realise she was doing anything wrong, and many shop keepers allowed her to keep the sweets or small toys she’d taken an interest to while they shopped. He knew what CCTV cameras looked like, and their field of view was small, it was easy to work out where he could walk without being caught on film. And even if he _did_ get caught on camera, the images would be fuzzy and they’d be no way for them to confirm it was him. 

“We do, you may not have noticed but there are high quality surveillance cameras installed in the kitchen – I have the footage of this break in, as well as several others, on tape” Asami gestured to a small TV screen in the limo next to the privacy screen, insinuating that he’d play the evidence he Ryouta wanted him to.

“W-what are you going to do about it then?” Ryouta asked, up until now he had been feeling confident in his abilities. He felt stupid now, for thinking that he could be as good as the other street kids, the kids that had been fighting to survive on their own for much longer than they had “Are you taking us to the police?” Ryouta didn’t want to get arrested, the police would take Fuyumi away and he’d never see her again. Hardly any families wanted him before, he was certain that no one would want him at all if they knew he was bad.

“What good would that do, Ryouta, they’d only bring you back to that orphanage right?” Akihito could see the panic on Ryouta’s face, what the kids were doing was wrong and they shouldn’t have run away - Akihito couldn’t blame them, but the police wouldn’t see it that way. 

“H-how do you know my name… Who are you people?” Ryouta, for the first time that night, felt terrified. Tokyo was a big city, but these people seemed to know exactly who they were. The longer he sat there and listened, the less anything made sense.

“When we found out that it was a kid that was stealing from us, we did some research on you…” Asami watched as the colour drained from Ryouta’s face, he was being mean and he knew it – but he felt that he had a right to punish the kid for a bit.

“Why… Hey, you still haven’t answered my question, why did you take us?” Ryouta asked, willing his voice to stop shaking, he tightened his grip on Fuyumi. Fuyumi couldn’t follow the conversation, but she could feel how fast her brother’s heart was beating. The two men in the car seemed friendly, but her brother, who had taught her almost everything she knew, was afraid of them. 

“Do we need a reason?” Asami asked, there was nothing wrong with the response, but it did nothing to ease Ryouta’s fears. 

“Asami!” Akihito scolded, a glare on his face momentarily before he turned to Ryouta with a smile “Hey, we just want to help you okay – it must have been difficult these last few months”

“That doesn’t make any sense, why would you do that, we _stole_ from you” before Akihito could reassure the boy that they had no alterative motives, Ryouta added “People don’t do nice things for no reason” Akihito felt a stabbing feeling to his heart as those words sank in, it didn’t seem right for a child to have such a grim image of people. Ryouta didn’t speak for the rest of the ride back to the penthouse, by the time they arrived both Ryouta and Fuyumi were fast asleep – still holding onto each other. Ryouta jerked awake when Akihito attempted to prise Fuyumi out of his protective hold

“Shh, it’s alright – look let’s make a deal, we won’t tell the police about you but you have to come with us. We’ll give you food and somewhere to sleep for the rest of the night and we can talk in the morning, okay?” Akihito was shocked when Ryouta nodded and released his sister, Akihito had thought Ryouta would put up a fight again. Ryouta was too tired to fight any more and the invitation of food was too appealing. Refusing to be carried, Ryouta followed Akihito (who held the sleeping Fuyumi) and Asami to the elevator. As they walked through a lobby, Ryouta couldn’t help but look around. It should have been obvious that an owner of a club could afford to live somewhere expensive, but Ryouta wasn’t expecting anything so grand.  
He felt even worse in his dirty trainers, old jeans and plain T-shirt than he usually did. Their clothes were clean, he brought a dictionary to learn the kanji on the washing machines and they went to a public bath as often as they could afford. They slept anywhere that had shelter, they were as clean as they could be and he didn’t let them go hungry for too long. It wasn’t the best lifestyle, but Ryouta convinced himself he was doing the right thing… That nothing else mattered as long as they were together. But now, standing in the lobby of luxury apartment complex, he felt a distance that he had never felt before.  
The ride to the top floor didn’t make the new feelings Ryouta was experiencing any better, the place looked bigger than the orphanage. His childish curiosity got the better of him, after putting his shoes neatly to the side of the genkan, Ryouta explored the apartment. After poking his head through every open door (he thought it’d be rude to open any) Ryouta found the guest room. Akihito had already placed Fuyumi on the bed, and there were two plates of food sitting on the bedside table.

“Here, you can sleep in these shirts. They’re a bit big but it’s better than sleeping in your jeans” Ryouta flinched, he hadn’t heard when Akihito came into the room. The feeling of confusion was now overriding the other bundle of emotions he was feeling.

“You… why are you letting us stay here, you know that we’re thieves – what… what if we do something whilst you sleep?” Ryouta knew that they wouldn’t get passed that lobby if they did try to steal anything, but he was hoping that the adults would see logic. It felt ridicules, for as long as he could remember adults were always telling him not to trust random strangers – yet these adults were letting them sleep in their home.

“Guess we’ll just have to trust you, and will have to trust us. Anyway, if we were planning on doing something bad to you, we would have done it already” with that, Akihito turned to leave – he bid Ryouta goodnight and pulled the door until there was only a small gap. Pondering over it for any longer was pointless - Ryouta softly shook Fuyumi awake and gave her one of the plates of food. No matter what happens the next day, they’d need the energy.


	2. It'd be nice to have a family...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry... This was meant to be uploaded at least a week ago...  
> I got a bit (very) carried away again...  
> I have no idea when the word count got to 13,000+ *sweat drop*  
> So yeah, here you go! One chapter left, it'll (hopefully) be a lot shorter than this...  
> Its more of an epilogue really.
> 
> I haven't beta read this, so there will probably be more mistakes than the first chapter, if you find any feel free to point them out!
> 
> Also, thank you so much to everyone who commented, read, bookmarked and left kudos on the last chapter!  
> I was so shocked, I didn't expect to get this kind of reaction - I really didn't think anyone would like this story or my writing so THANK YOU!

Fuyumi woke up before Ryouta, she sat up and eyed her surroundings. After eating last night she had fallen asleep again, Ryouta had changed her from her day clothes and left her to sleep in the over-sized T-shirt Akihito had provided. Fuyumi crawled over Ryouta and jumped to the floor, Akihito’s T-shirt reached her knees. It wasn’t the first time that Fuyumi remembered waking up in a different place to where she had fallen asleep, but this was the first time she had woken up in a room like this. During the 6 months they had been on the run, they had slept in empty apartments often. There were so many old apartment blocks in Tokyo, many of them so run down that hardly anyone was willing to live there. The doors were easy to break open, and they’d stay until the landlord noticed. They didn’t have heating, running water or electricity, but it was better than sleeping on the streets. Fuyumi eyes jumped from the crack in the door and her sleeping brother, she wanted to know where they were but that meant leaving Ryouta. The sound of a voice brought Fuyumi’s attention back to the door, she opened it enough to be able to poke her head out. The corridor was empty and the voice was coming from the only open door. Checking once more than her brother was still asleep, Fuyumi left the room 

 

“Yes… Leave the report on my desk…” Asami heard the sound of small footsteps, then the little girl’s head popped round the corner – she stared at him with big eyes, “Schedule in another visit to Braunii, don’t let them know I’m coming” Asami said, and then hung up the phone. Asami didn’t have much experience dealing with children as young as Fuyumi; he had had fun bullying Ryouta, but Asami didn’t want a crying 4-year-old on his hands. He was sure Akihito would get mad at him for it. They stood staring at each other for a moment, either of them making a move. Finally, Fuyumi pushed herself away from the doorway and came further into the room – she stopped once she was at Asami’s feet, then looked up at him

 

“You’re big!” Fuyumi said, Asami was the tallest person she had ever seen, she didn’t find the height intimidating in the slightest. Instead, it made her like Asami even more.

 

“I’m… Big?” Asami was confused, he had no idea what the child wanted from him – nor did he understand why she was pointing out that he was big.  _Big in what way_ , Asami thought to himself, but didn’t bother to ask the child in question for answers – he guessed it was something he would just have to accept as a child’s logic.    

 

“Up!” Asami felt panicked for a moment, he really didn’t expect the child to take a liking to him – he wanted to wake Akihito and leave his lover on babysitting duty. But he knew that Akihito wouldn’t let him get away with avoiding the youngest child. Asami reached down and lifted the girl into his arms, she barely weighted a thing. Asami wondered if that was due to her age or malnutrition. 

 

“You don’t think I’m scary?” It was strange, adults were terrified of him – they’d make themselves small in his presence and do anything to stay on his good side. This child had approached him on her own, and even demanded to be picked up. 

 

“Nope. Nii-Chan doesn’t like you, but I like you” Fuyumi said happily. Asami wasn’t sure how to feel, what the hell reason did the child have for liking him? He’d understand her liking Akihito, as the two had chatted for awhile – but he hadn’t spoken to Fuyumi at all. How the child could come to a conclusion about him so quickly puzzled him, she obviously had no sense of danger. Asami had no clue as to what to do now, but guessed he should feed the little girl. It was now passed 10am, still too early in the morning for Akihito but quite late for hyperactive children to sleep in ‘til. He carried Fuyumi into the kitchen, listening as she told him stories about her ‘super-cool-hero’ big brother. Asami realised that to Fuyumi, Ryouta was her whole world. It wasn’t surprising really, since Ryouta was the only thing that remained familiar throughout her life. She was moved from house to house, foster family to foster family so many times it was ridiculous – and although she had stayed at the same orphanage, the members of staff also changed often. Fuyumi was too young to go to school, and her records showed that she had never been enrolled with a day care centre while at the orphanage.

If Fuyumi had been in a school setting, she’d have made friends there and gotten to know the teachers. At the orphanage, any friends she would have made would have been taken away randomly, either fostered or adopted. Asami was relieved that Fuyumi’s sociability hadn’t suffered, he wasn’t sure that Akihito’s emotions would have stayed in check if Fuyumi was as emotionally marred as her brother. After placing Fuyumi to sit on the kitchen counter, Asami began to rummage through the cupboards for something to feed the girl with. Luckily, Akihito was now in charge of grocery shopping (if not the cupboards would have been filed with liquor) and the cupboards were full of sweets, biscuits and other sugary snacks. Asami placed a few cookies onto a plate, made himself a coffee and Fuyumi a hot chocolate. He knew that cookies weren’t counted as a good breakfast for children, and also knew that Akihito would be annoyed, but he didn’t care for cooking a meal and was sure that Fuyumi would prefer cookies over a healthy(ish) bowl of cereal. 

 

“Itadakimasu” Fuyumi said happily before picking up a cookie with both hands and taking a bite. She ended up with most of the cookies on her lap, face and a 1 metre radius of where she sat – Asami gave up any hope of getting rid of the evidence. He had no idea how Fuyumi managed to make so much mess with a few cookies, he went to get a straw and placed it into the hot chocolate. From what he had just seen, there was no way that Fuyumi would be able to finish the drink without spilling it on herself. Asami almost let out a sigh of relief when Akihito finally woke up, the boy entered the kitchen, his hair sticking up in all directions. 

 

“Help” Asami said, not caring that he sounded hopeless and slightly pathetic. Akihito stared at him in confusion for a few moments, until he laid eyes on Fuyumi, who was now drinking the hot drink while swinging her legs. 

 

“Really Asami… Usually you’re all badass, you grin down the barrel of a gun but you’re scared of a  _child!”_ Akihito couldn’t help but giggle as he nudged Asami, allowing himself the luxury of having something to tease Asami for, for once.

 

“I’m not scared of her, I just don’t know what to do with her” Asami corrected, he refused to believe that he was scared of looking after Fuyumi, he wasn’t scared of anything (losing Akihito or his friends was something he deemed impossible and it was stupid to fear the impossible) “Small children don’t follow the same thought process as an adult, bribery doesn’t work” Asami said with a shrug, he didn’t believe the last part of his statement to be true - children were easier to bribe, as they didn’t understand the worth of things and would often be content with the sugary goods that they usually weren’t allowed to eat. But he knew that it would get the right reaction out of Akihito, and put an end to the teasing. 

 

“Don’t try to bribe her!” Akihito hissed, as expected, but what Asami hadn’t expected was the sentence that followed “You better not avoid looking after her, or I’ll drag you to Disneyland and leave you there with the kids” the threat seemed to be affective, happy with Asami’s horrified look – Akihito lifted Fuyumi from the kitchen counter. Asami thought that he had escaped all childminding responsibilities, but it seemed that the gods and Akihito had plans to punish him for all the people he had scared so much that they had wet themselves. 

Akihito guessed by the amount of crumbles that Asami had given Fuyumi a snack, but she’d more than likely get hungry again quickly and Ryouta needed breakfast also. He brought Fuyumi to the dining table, and placed her on to one of the chairs – Fuyumi’s head barely peaked out from over the edge of the table. 

 

“… Is she meant to be so small?” Asami asked after a few seconds of staring at the top of Fuyumi’s head.

 

“She’s smaller than normal 4-year-olds…” A voice said from behind them, Asami had heard Ryouta coming but Akihito jumped, shrieking unmanly in fright. He was used to Asami sneaking up on him, and didn’t stay alert if he was in the penthouse and knew Asami’s location – he hadn’t expected Ryouta to enter so quietly, “you’re kinda jumpy, did you break the law or something, kidnap a couple of kids?” Ryouta’s attitude was back; he walked over to where Fuyumi was and sat on the chair with her. 

 

“We didn’t kidnap you, we’re helping you” Akihito countered, though he knew that his argument would never hold up in court. The plan had been to calmly speak to Ryouta and invite them home, but three large men in suits with stoic expressions showing up behind you on a dark alley was intimidating. When put into the same situation, Akihito had also gone into flight mode. He couldn’t blame Ryouta for running, it was Asami’s fault for having such a foreboding aura.

 

“Technically, taking someone against their will is kidnapping – your intentions are irrelevant” Asami said, not helping the situation at all

 

“Who’s the hell side are you on?”

 

“He’s on the side of the law, it’s really cool y’know, we don’t get thrown into prison” the thought of Asami being on the side of the law was almost enough to make Akihito snort, until a little voice piped up 

 

“What’s kidnapping?” Fuyumi asked, Akihito had forgotten she was in the room, Fuyumi had moved and couldn’t be seen at all over the table, but she now rested on her knees with her hands on the table to keep her balanced.

 

“Don’t teach Fuyumi bad things!” Akihito scolded the other two in the room, then walked over to pat Fuyumi on the head “It’s nothing Fuyumi, don’t worry” Akihito hoped she wouldn’t ask any more questions, he wasn’t sure at what age it was acceptable for children to learn about the horrors of the world but he was sure that 4 was too young – if he had anything to do with it, Fuyumi would stay oblivious to the darkness until she was 20.

 

“I want to go to Disneyland!” Akihito thanked the gods that Fuyumi changed the subject, “we’ve never been to a park before” before Akihito could question what she meant, Ryouta spoke up to clarify

 

“She means a theme park” Akihito had thought for a second that they had never been to any kind of park (he would have dragged them on a spontaneous visit to Niko Niko Park) though the fact that they had never been to a theme park was just as bad. Akihito had done work for orphanages before, taking photos of the children and the facilities for their websites – the orphans he met would often tell him about trips they were taken on, many of which were funded by the public.

 

“Then how about this, if you let us find you a family to adopt you both – we’ll take you to Disneyland or anywhere you want to go?” Asami asked, they were going to help no matter what but it would be easier if they got the siblings (mostly Ryouta) to cooperate. Akihito was hoping that it would blow over well with Ryouta, but knew better than to think it would be so easy – he begrudgingly admitted to himself that he wouldn’t have accepted it so easily.

 

“That’s not fair!” Ryouta whined, Fuyumi didn’t care about the rest of the sentence, the offer of being taken to Disneyland had her singing and clapping in excitement, “Fuyumi’s going to hate me forever if I say no” Ryouta said miserably, Akihito’s heart clenched – he really wanted Ryouta’s approval and trust. Ryouta wasn’t as tense as he was yesterday, but he was still being guarded. Deciding that it would be best to have Fuyumi in another room for the rest of the conversation, Akihito picked Fuyumi up and carried her out of the dining area. He was glad that Ryouta threw no protests at his sister being taken away – but the older boy did watch intently as Akihito left the room. Akihito left Fuyumi in front of the TV in the company of some cartoons, as he returned to the dining room he ran into Kirishima. By now Akihito had grown used to Kirishima randomly appearing in the penthouse, the impromptu visits were few and far between unless either Asami or Akihito were sick, then Kirishima’s ‘mothering-hen’ mode would be activated and the man would practically move in. 

 

“Has he calmed down, or am I going to get kicked in the shin by a brat again?” Kirishima asked once he spotted Akihito enter the kitchen with him, from where he stood he could see Asami and Ryouta sitting at the dining table. Ignoring the implication left by that comment, Akihito shook his head

 

“Nah, he isn’t fighting anymore – well, not physically. For a kid, he is seriously guarded. He jokes around with us but he still feels far away” Akihito let out a sigh, he wanted to do something to take away the pain that Ryouta was feeling, but he was powerless if Ryouta shut them out. Kirishima wasn’t shocked to hear that Akihito was already coming to an understanding about Ryouta. As a journalist, Akihito had to be able to read people and understand their personalities quickly; unfortunately Akihito would also try to find the good in everyone, “We’re trying to get him used to the idea of us trying to find them a family…”

 

“Should I halt the proceedings until he agrees?” Kirishima knew that Asami wouldn’t care whether or not Ryouta was onboard, but Akihito would never allow it

 

“You’ve already started- that shouldn’t come as a surprise…” The expression of shock left as quickly as it came, to this day it still surprised Kirishima how easy it was to read Akihito like a book. Akihito should have known that Kirishima would have already started to look for potential families, the man was almost too good at his job, he was a perfectionist and extremely efficient “I need to cook breakfast…” Akihito mumbled, realising that it was now almost 11am, and they still hadn’t eaten anything (cookies don’t count).

 

“I’ll get something delivered, if you don’t go in there and help Ryuichi he’ll probably make things worse with Ryouta-kun” It still warmed Akihito’s heart when Kirishima and Suoh stopped treating Asami as their boss and started treating him like a good friend – he had almost choked the first time he had heard Kirishima refer to Asami by his first name. Akihito easily agreed, then rejoined Asami, thankfully Asami hadn’t been pushing too many of Ryouta’s buttons. Ryouta now had his legs close to his body, he hid his face behind his knees as he sat there shaking his head at whatever Asami was saying.

 

“I think he’s trying to will my existence away…” Asami said, addressing Akihito once he noticed his lover enter the room, chuckling, Akihito knelt down next to Ryouta

 

“I really wish I could will him away too sometimes, Ryouta. He’s really mean…” the joke earned a giggle from Ryouta, who lifted his head again to meet Akihito’s eyes.  

 

“No one is going to adopt us both…” Ryouta said softly, he really didn’t want to have this talk but he doubted Asami or Akihito were planning on let him off easily. It was painful to think about the reasons they had run away and Ryouta wasn’t sure he’d be able to make it through the conversation without crying. He had never spoken to anyone about it before, the staff back at the orphanage only cared about getting all of the children adopted as soon as possible, it made the orphanage look better. It was rare to get a member of staff that really cared, that would take the time to find out what they wanted. A lot of the nicer staff members would leave, they often had little to no power and their hearts couldn’t take watching as so many children suffered under their apparent care. It wasn’t their fault, they couldn’t do anything against the rules, regulations and their bosses but to Ryouta and to the other children, it just felt like another person abandoning them. 

 

“Why do you say that Ryouta, do you think that no family could come to care for you?” Akihito asked softly, he could tell (by Ryouta’s misery and the old reports) that Ryouta feared being left on his own. 

 

“Fuyumi is cute… Everyone loves her. I’m a boy and I’m almost a teenager. It’s too much trouble to look after me” Ryouta had heard adults say he was too much trouble over and over again. He had heard a few of his previous foster parents say that they would have adopted Fuyumi if Ryouta wasn’t around too. Ryouta felt the guilt he had been ignoring pooling at the bottom of his heart, it was so painful. The last thing he wanted was to cause Fuyumi pain, but even more than that he never wanted her to be taken away. It was selfish. So selfish, that he had ruined Fuyumi’s chances at having a happy family. Fuyumi would be fine without him, Ryouta didn’t doubt that Fuyumi would miss him terribly, but she would survive. 

 

“That’s not true, Ryouta-Chan” Akihito said softly, he wasn’t sure if Ryouta had heard people say those words, because the sentence sounded rehearsed, as if he had said it again and again. It didn’t sound like a conclusion that Ryouta had come to on his own, and the fact that the reports stated that the latest family were planning to adopt Fuyumi alone was enough of a confirmation.  

 

“It is!” A single tear rolled down Ryouta’s cheeks, followed by a few more as his walls finally broke, “I’m horrible, I made Fuyumi come with me and I’ve ruined her whole life” Ryouta no longer had the will to resist as Akihito pulled him into a tight hug. It had been awhile since he had been hugged by an adult, it was comforting and he calmed as he listened to Akihito’s soft words. 

 

“You’re so young Ryouta, so, so young. Nothing is set in stone for either of you. You haven’t ruined Fuyumi’s life, okay?” Akihito repeated what he hoped were reassuring words to Ryouta, who’s crying had softened. Akihito flashed a quick glance at Asami, Asami’s expression was soft as he stared down at the pair, his usual indifferent expression nowhere to be seen, “you can and you will be loved Ryouta-Chan, we’ll find you a family that will. Kirishima doesn’t settle for less than perfect for anything, and he is the one that he searching for a family for you” at being mentioned, Kirishima finally entered the room. He had been watching the whole time, and the last thing he had expected was to see Ryouta cry. After the way Ryouta had fought the night before, it was easy to forget that Ryouta was only 9-years-old, the boy could easily be mistaken for a 13-year-old if it wasn’t for his obvious baby-face. Ryouta wrapped his arms around Akihito’s waist when Akihito tried to move. He knew he was being clingy, and he hoped that Akihito wouldn’t get mad, but he wanted to act like a child for a little longer. Akihito found it impossibly cute that Ryouta was now clinging to him, he didn’t try to separate from the boy again. Instead, Akihito lifted Ryouta into his arms then sat, letting Ryouta get comfortable on his lap.  

 

“Hello Ryouta-kun, I’m Kirishima Kei, I’ve been conducting the search for potential parents. If you have any preferences or requests, please feel free to inform me” Kirishima said, with a formal bow. Ryouta wiped away the last of his tears as he stared at Kirishima in shock. He had never had an adult address him so formally before, let alone bow to him

 

“I’m Ryouta, I’ll be in your care” It then occurred to Ryouta that he had never formally introduced himself to Asami or Akihito either. Ryouta looked up at Akihito, then over at Asami, who seemed to understand what Ryouta was thinking as he chuckled then introduced himself 

 

“It is an odd time for introductions… I’m Asami Ryuichi, I own a number of clubs including Braunii that you’re acquainted with. I would introduce Akihito, but he has already threatened me this morning – my sensibilities tell me to leave him alone” Asami chuckled at the expression on Akihito’s face, his lover looked as if he had just revealed the secret to winning the war (game) between them. If the thought of being sent to Disneyland wasn’t so unpleasant, Asami would have introduced Akihito as his wife. 

 

“If that’s all it takes I would have threatened you ages ago…” Akihito mumbled to himself, making a mental note to use threats involving looking after children and amusement parks when needed, “Takaba Akihito, I’m a photographer. I’ll take good pictures for your portfolio, okay” Ryouta was shocked hearing that Akihito and Asami didn’t have the same last name – throwing his assumption that they were related out of the window. Their relationship was slightly confusing, they were obviously close and they even lived together, yet Akihito called Asami by his last name. Ryouta didn’t have time to pounder about it any longer, the doorbell rang and Kirishima slipped out of the room. The man returned less than a minute later with a bag of food and Fuyumi skipping happily behind him. Suddenly aware of the fact that he was still sitting on Akihito’s lap, Ryouta slid down and climbed onto an empty chair. He liked that Fuyumi saw him as a cool adult, and he was sure being seen sitting on a real adult’s lap would taint that.

While they ate Fuyumi led the conversation, Ryouta had no idea why Fuyumi had started talking about Disneyland this time around but he knew from experience that it would takes weeks to shut her up about it. Since the first time Fuyumi had seen an advert for Disneyland at the age of 2 she had been obsessed with the place. Ryouta was glad that the conversation about their adoption that stopped, but he was feeling a mixture of emotions as he listened to Fuyumi babble about her favourite place in the world. Akihito’s words still rang in his head, he hadn’t ruined Fuyumi’s life. Ryouta wasn’t sure why he was still against the idea of letting Kirishima find a family. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Asami and Akihito, he had come to trust them more than he had trusted most adults in the few hours of knowing them. 

 

“Ryouta-kun?” Asami asked, Ryouta had stopped eating for the last few minutes and had a distant look on his face as he poked at his food “Are you okay?” It was obvious that the boy was lost in thought; Asami could only assume it was about their proposal – he didn’t want to leave Ryouta to think about it on his own for too long

 

“Yeah… Just thinking…” Ryouta said softly, he shovelled a piece of egg into his mouth and swallowed before continuing, “It doesn’t sound like a bad thing… Kirishima-san finding us a family… But I don’t like it”

 

“Why do we always get stuck with stubborn brats…?” Kirishima sighed, but he was glad that Ryouta was nowhere near as stubborn as Akihito – if they were dealing with a Teenaged Akihito the battle would have gone on for at least a week. Though Ryouta’s slight reluctant was to be expected. Ryouta was still a child and he wanted help from adults, and as much as he denied the thought, he wanted a family for his own sake as well as for Fuyumi’s. 

 

“Kei is a perfectionist, he won’t settle for just anyone. And if anything happens or if you don’t like the family, you’ll be able to contact us. Akihito is never going to leave you alone now, and he doesn’t give up on anything easily” Akihito wasn’t sure if Asami meant it as a compliment or if it was just another way of calling him stubborn, but Akihito could feel his heart flutter regardless. Ignoring the feeling, Akihito momentary stopped eating and grinned at Ryouta

 

“You don’t have to do everything by yourself Ryouta, you can be independent when you’re older – for now, shut up and listen to the adults” done with his speech, Akihiko resumed eating – much to Asami’s amusement. Home cooked meals were great, and Akihito had come to love cooking for Asami, but getting a traditional Japanese breakfast delivered from a restaurant on the odd occasion was a nice treat. It was also rare to have Kirishima stay and eat breakfast with them

 

“Okay… But you have to take Fuyumi to Disneyland now, she doesn’t stop talking about it – it’s so annoying”

 

“I’ll pay for anything, Akihito can take you both” Asami still remembered Akihito’s threat from earlier; he really didn’t want to end up in some overcrowded park with too many children. Though Asami knew that there wasn’t much that Akihito could actually do to _make_ him take the children to Disneyland, he didn’t put it passed Akihito to go M.I.A. if he failed to bite the bullet and do as he was told for once. Akihito had an unnerving talent for going under the radar, he would never admit it but Asami always had a hard time tracking Akihito down when the boy ran off in a strop.

 

* 

 

Ryouta woke with a start, the nightmare still making his heart pound and his breath come short. He couldn’t remember what had been so scary, but the unfamiliar surroundings didn’t help to calm him down. It took a few moments for Ryouta to remember where he was, that Fuyumi was sleeping peacefully next to him and that he was safe. He didn’t know what time it was, but the darkness indicated that it wasn’t morning yet. Deciding that he should probably go back to sleep, Ryouta laid back down, he laid facing towards Fuyumi instead of on his back in his usual sleeping position – it was a small comfort to see the outline of Fuyumi’s face.

After twisting and turning in the bed for a few minutes, Ryouta gave up trying to go back to sleep. He would wake with a jolt every time he started to drift off again, and now he was starting to fear falling asleep. Slowly, so not to wake Fuyumi, Ryouta crept out of the spare bedroom. The rest of the penthouse was dark and quiet, so quiet that Ryouta didn’t notice Asami sitting on the sofa going through financial reports on his I-pad in the moonlight. The ceiling to floor windows allowed enough moonlight and artificial light to filter into the room that reading on the I-pad wasn’t a strain to Asami’s eyes, he had heard the sound of footsteps and watched as Ryouta joined him in the living room. Still unaware of Asami’s presence, Ryouta stood by the window and stared out at the city below – it was the first time Ryouta had paid attention to the view. 

 

“Can’t sleep?” Asami asked, once he had grown bored of watching Ryouta. Startled, Ryouta span on his heels in the direction of the voice – it took few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the darkness and focus on Asami’s relaxed figure.

 

“Yeah… I, um…” Ryouta wasn’t sure what to say, back at the orphanage they had a curfew and weren’t allowed to get out of bed after 9pm. Asami didn’t sound angry and had obviously been sitting there for the whole time before speaking – if Asami was planning to scold him for breaking curfew then send him back to bed, Ryouta was sure he’d be back in the room with Fuyumi by now. Asami waited to see if Ryouta would talk about what had gotten him out of bed without prompting. After a few moments of silence, Asami asked another question 

 

“Had a nightmare?” Ryouta nodded, he didn’t want to talk about the nightmare – mostly because he couldn’t remember it and felt stupid for being afraid. The room fell silent again, neither of them making a move. It was then that Ryouta realised he had never referred to Asami by name, and didn’t know how to call the man.

 

“A… Asami-san?” Ryouta watched Asami’s expression, gauging for a reaction, when the man didn’t say anything Ryouta asked a question that had been running through his mind before he had fallen asleep “I still don’t get why you’re doing this… I mean, it would have been easier just to put us in another orphanage” It was understandable that Asami and Akihito didn’t want them to be living on the streets and stealing, but it would have been less trouble if they had just been taken to a new orphanage. It was quite clear that Asami was filthy rich, so the money side of looking after two children wasn’t so much of a problem, but it also took up a lot of time to look after children. Neither Asami nor Akihito had left the penthouse for the day, but they had both taken a lot of calls and sent emails.

 

“Hmm, but the same thing would happen again, would it not?” Asami was sure that if they had brought the kids to an orphanage in Tokyo, if not watched carefully, the kids would have runaway again. There was only so much influence he could have over which families they were placed with if they went to a public orphanage. The legal procedure would be to have the children in a registered establishment until the adoption paper work was completed, and all the paperwork and screening should be done by a social working. But Kirishima worked more efficiently than the best social workers, and by working slightly below the legal radar they could pick a family cleared by _their_ background checks.

 

“Yeah… But you still would have gotten us off the streets… You don’t know us, so why does what happens to us matter…”

 

“Two years ago I didn’t see the point in helping people if there were no benefits. I don’t act on emotion; I would do things that would turn the situation in my favour, not as an act of kindness” Asami explained, but didn’t go into too much detail, Ryouta was too young to know just how heartless he had been, and could be “But Akihito is an idiot with a big heart, and unfortunately stupidity is contagious. I’m finding that he is forcing me into doing things that hold no benefit to me more often” this wasn’t the first, or second time, Asami had been roped into helping seemingly irrelevant people – it was the only time that Akihito willingly utilised Asami’s fortune.

 

"Asami-san?" Ryouta said after another bout of silence

 

"You don't have to refer to me so formally, it’s not childlike or cute at all" Asami chuckled at Ryouta’s brief look of panic. Ryouta didn’t want to be rude, but Asami was teasing him, not telling him off – the smirk on his lips and the chuckle proved that.

 

"Fine… Can I call you Ryuichi-Nii-San?" Ryouta asked, he wasn’t sure how old Asami was but the man didn’t look old enough to be called Oji-San and insinuating that he was a middle aged man would be rude. Asami agreed to the name, it was still formal but more familiar than ‘-San’, "Thank you... For, well, everything... And I'm sorry for stealing from you" Asami frowned at the last part of Ryouta’s sentence, he hadn’t expected an apology. Asami schooled his expression before Ryouta caught it – the moonlight making it hard to make out distinct details from their distance – Ryouta would have taken the look as one of anger.  

 

"... Come here" Asami held out his hand, Ryouta stepped forward and took the outstretched hand without question, he didn't protest when he was pulled to sit on Asami's lap. Ryouta sat stiff at first, until Asami began to softly rub circles on his back, he relaxed and rested his head against Asami's chest "You don't have to apologise, I was never mad at you. You weren't being greedy; you were doing what you had to, to survive. You're very smart Ryouta, my staff at Braunii were incompetent... Were idiots for letting it go unnoticed for so long" Asami had almost forgotten about the problems with Braunii, Kirishima was taking care of a large part of the proceedings, but he’d have to step in if (and when) any action was required. Asami wasn’t keen on giving the club manager too much leeway, they had waited too long with Sudou, and that had ended with Akihito getting kidnapped (though that was more to do with Sudou’s infatuation with Asami than unauthorised dealings) and the penthouse ambushed.

 

"How did they find out anyway...?” It was soothing to listen to Asami's heartbeat and the way Asami’s chest rumbled as he spoke, Ryouta could feel his eyes getting heavy, but he willed himself to stay awake. He wanted to hear Asami's answer. It bothered him that he had gotten caught, it had been so long since he began to steal from Braunii’s kitchen and he had been confident that he’d never get found.

 

"Kei found you, he thought something was weird - no one else bothered to check all of the CCTV cameras, only the ones of the dance floor and outside"

 

 “Kei-San is nice… I thought he was scary at first…” Ryouta remembered being scared of the four of them, it seemed stupid now, especially with Akihito who turned out to be the kindest adult he had ever met “I kicked the other man from yesterday…” Ryouta didn’t remember much of what he did while he was trying to escape, but he was certain that at least one of the wild kicks he was throwing landed on the man that had grabbed him first. And for the man to have let go, it must have hurt.

 

“That was Suoh Kazumi, he’s my bodyguard and head of security at Sion. He’ll be fine, but Kei will never let him live down the fact that you escaped from him” Asami didn’t feel sorry for Suoh in the slightest, they all had a warped sense of humour and when the tables were turned (when Akihito kicked Kirishima before jumping off of the roof), Suoh had taken great pleasure in tormenting Kirishima at any chance he got. Suoh was one of the few people that Asami found hard to read, and the man hardly spoke, so when Suoh’s dark humour first came to light some years ago, Asami and Kirishima had been shocked and slightly horrified. It had been the last thing they had expected, and the man’s expression didn’t change   

 

“… So Kazumi-San isn’t mad?” Suoh was huge, his suit hardly hid his muscles and Ryouta was sure that he wouldn’t survive a single punch from the man. Ryouta knew that Akihito, nor Asami, would let Suoh hurt him (and he doubted Suoh would want to anyway) but the fear was still there, Ryouta had gotten beaten up for less on many occasions

 

“No, he isn’t. I can bring you with me to Sion tomorrow if you want to meet him, then you can drag Akihito across the city to arcades, or something along those lines. It’ll keep you all out of trouble” Asami wasn’t sure how much of what he said was actually understood, Ryouta mumbled an ‘okay’, but he was soon fast asleep on his lap.

 

 

 *

 

 

It had been two weeks since that night at Braunii, since the kids first came to live with them. It had been hectic, but they had now arranged their routines to perfection – they made sure that someone was always at the penthouse with the children. Akihito often took the kids out, to parks and arcades; he wanted to save as much of their childhood as he could. It was easy for Fuyumi; she was still young and adapted quickly. Ryouta took baby steps, Akihito managed to get Ryouta to relax while he was around but Ryouta would be on edge every time he was alone or if they lost sight of Fuyumi. 

 

“I don’t want to, what’s the point in me going, don’t you have better things to spend money on!” Akihito mentally sighed, he wanted to get involved with the argument but it wouldn’t get him anywhere. Ryouta was stubborn, he refused to accept anything apart from food, clothes and toys for Fuyumi. Akihito didn’t move from where he sat on the floor with Fuyumi sitting on his lap, nonsensical cartoons were on the TV and Fuyumi was so engrossed in the action she didn’t notice Asami and her brother enter the room. 

 

“You’re going. Just accept it like a good little boy” Asami knew the ‘little boy’ remark wouldn’t go down well with Ryouta, but the reactions were too amusing. Asami couldn’t bully Akihito without repercussions, but he could get away with bullying Ryouta. 

 

“Stop mocking me and answer my question!” Just as expected, Ryouta was now angry, his fists curled tightly by his side – Asami’s chuckling didn’t help to loosen Ryouta’s mood, “You’re so annoying!” Ryouta yelled, then threw himself onto the sofa – by now he was aware that he was acting like a child, he hid his face under the cushions. It was embarrassing, Ryouta had been told by many adults that he was very mature for his age – but Asami managed to make him act like a 5 year old throwing a temper tantrum.   

 

“Asami stop bullying Ryouta-kun… What was the argument about this time?” Akihito asked, he wanted to pat the side of Ryouta’s head that was sticking out from underneath the cushion, but guessed that Ryouta wouldn’t appreciate the gesture. At the moment he’d take it as being treated like a child, instead of a comforting act like Akihito intended. Fuyumi turned her attention to her brother for awhile, then crawled over to Asami’s foot. Asami automatically lifted Fuyumi onto his lap once she was within reach – the girl made herself comfortable, then went back to her cartoons. Akihito found it adorable, the way that Fuyumi was so clingy with Asami – it had taken Asami a few days to get used to it, now he hardly batted an eyelid at having a 4-year-old attached to his leg. 

 

“I showed him the letter of acceptance from Hanabusa elementary school” Kirishima had been doing the arrangements for Ryouta to go to school - it was a welcomed escape from dealing with Club Braunii’s manager. Ryouta had still been enrolled in his old school in Sendai; it had taken awhile (and a fair amount of illegal bribery) for the school to transfer Ryouta’s details to the school Kirishima had chosen. Ryouta’s old school had many questions, like where had Ryouta been for 6 months and how was he now in Tokyo with strangers. Luckily, Asami was able to convince the education board into processing Ryouta’s change of school as a simple transfer. Kuroda Shinji, a district attorney and a friend of Asami’s, had also conveniently erased all mention of Ryouta and Fuyumi going missing. It was as if the last 6 months hadn’t happened.  

 

“It’s a Private school!” Ryouta whined, he hated having to rely on adults again, hated that Asami felt the need to buy them everything, hated how homely it was starting to feel and hated the idea of going to school again. Ryouta had never liked school, it wasn’t that he was bad with the lessons (he got good marks on most of his tests), other children would either pity him or bully him once they found out he was an orphan. He hated the way the teachers would act as well, they were completely different around him – as if he were a delicate butterfly that would break if they mentioned family around him.

 

“It’s the only one Kirishima approved of that is in a convenient location for Akihito to pick you up” Asami was used to arguing with stubborn people who couldn’t just shut-up and accept a gift, but he wasn’t one to give up, he’d do as he saw fit (which usually ended with forcing gifts on stubborn people or messing with their emotions until they accepted said gifts).

 

“Why is that a factor, it’s not like Aki-Chan will be picking us up forever…” Ryouta didn’t want to think about the way his heart clenched as he said that, he wasn’t meant to get attached – Asami and Akihito were being nice by helping them, they were helping them find a new family and making sure that they’d live a good life. They didn’t want children. It was just troublesome to have a thief, “You know it would have been  _free_  if it was a public school” Ryouta hugged the cushion to his chest – it was still covering the majority of his body but his head was no longer hidden.

 

“This school has better facilities, and the school has a kindergarten that Fuyumi can go to” they had found that dragging Fuyumi into an argument was the easiest way to get Ryouta to give in, it was a dirty move and it would play on Ryouta’s guilty conscience, but it was effective. 

 

“Fuyumi’s coming too?” Ryouta hadn’t expected Fuyumi to join him in school until she was old enough to enter the 1st grade. It’d be better having Fuyumi there, but which their age gap it’d be unlikely that he’d even see her during the day.

 

“Hey Ryouta… Are you worried about making friends?” Akihito asked, he had been wanting to broach the subject for awhile, but was finding it hard to do so in a way that wouldn’t upset Ryouta “I’m only asking because you like listening to Asami’s business meetings and you’re always questioning Kirishima about things you don’t understand – so it’s not that you don’t like learning” from experience Akihito knew that elementary school kids could be horrible, he had a lot of friends back then and they didn’t let anyone bully them, but he had seen others that weren’t so lucky

 

“… They kept saying I was a half, because of my hair” Ryouta said, he didn’t want to turn to look at Asami or Akihito – it was hard to talk about emotions, and their faces were always sympatric but left no room for escape, “but I don’t know… I don’t know about anything like that… I don’t even know my family name. It’s so stupid” Ryouta hated the fact that he knew so little about himself, but more than that he hated the reaction it caused. Ryouta wished that his hair was black, he was sure that he would have been picked on less if he didn’t stand out so much. In his school, there had only been 4 other students with blonde hair, two were exchange students from Europe, one was half British and the other was a 6th grader who bleached their hair.

 

“Ryouta, if you want to know your ethnic origins, there are tests that can be done to find out” with 21st century technology it was easy to find out something as simple as ethnicity, tests could be brought online for less than the cost of a smart phone.

 

“He means, we can find out where you came from” Akihito explained on seeing Ryouta’s confusion

 

“I… don’t want to know. I want to find my parents, but I hate them and I never want to see them. I don’t know” Ryouta was confused, he had be curious for so long – yet the idea of finding his real parents made him mad. Knowing where he came from was one step closer to knowing his parents, and he wanted nothing to do with them (probably). 

 

“It’s alright not to know Ryouta. Asami is good at finding people, if you ever  _want_  to find them, we’ll try, okay?” Akihito decided that leaving the option open was their best bet, as much as finding Ryouta’s parents would probably be easy – there was a chance that their parents would still want nothing to do with them. After all, the parents never contacted the orphanage and never came back to visit. If Ryouta was to ever seek his birth parents, he’d have to be emotional prepared for rejection

 

“… Ryuichi-Nii-San… Will you drop me off on the first day?”

 

“Hmm, you want to arrive in an expensive sports car or a limo – trying to make an impression?”

 

“In anime all the cool people get dropped off in foreign cars… And Aki-Chan looks like he could be my older brother so no one will think I’m an orphan…” Ryouta was letting his imagination run wild, for years he wished he had an older brother to collect him from school. Since most people either walked or rode a bicycle when commuting, the ones who were dropped off in cars were seen as cool – it didn’t matter if the cars were old. Akihito was cool and good-looking, when they went to parks Ryouta would often notice girls glancing at Akihito and giggling to with their friends. A few would approach them, using asking for directions or the time as an excuse to talk to Akihito. Ryouta was sure that Akihito didn’t notice the attention that he drew

 

“Anime is not a reference for life!” Akihito was considering banning Ryouta from watching Anime and talking to Asami, both were damaging to Ryouta’s logic and personality. Anime was dramatic and unrealistic, and Asami was shameless

 

“I want everyone to think I’m mysterious. They’ll all want to talk to me, but only a few will be brave enough” Ryouta ignored Akihito’s outburst, as did Asami, who took a seat next to Ryouta. 

 

“It seems like a plan to me, I’ll let Akihito take drive the Lamborghini. You’ll have girls begging for his number” Asami knew, more than Akihito, how popular his lover was. Momohara Ai was just one example – people loved Akihito for his kindness as well as his looks

 

“… I give up” Akihito began to ignore them after that, he was  _hoping_  that they weren’t being serious anymore, though he didn’t doubt that he’d end up driving the damned sports car, not that he minded. It wouldn’t be the first time Akihito had driven one of Asami’s cars, but it wasn’t a regular occurrence. Especially after the time he had been stopped by the police, they were convinced that he was under aged and had stolen the car. Kirishima had arrived at the police station promptly to release Akihito after the police had seized the car and arrested him. The news of his arrest had spread around Sion quickly; Akihito was still sure that it had been Kirishima’s idea of revenge – the evil smile on the man’s face had been unnerving. It gave the staff someone to giggle about every time they saw him, and it had also been the first time Suoh had joined in with the ‘let’s all tease Akihito’ game. It felt like unnecessary payback for the little bit of trouble he caused them in the early days (and still does every now and again), they had gotten their revenge ten-told. After that embarrassing event, Akihito only drove one of Asami’s cars when he needed to blend in with the rich crowd for a scoop.

As he sat there, pointedly trying to ignore Asami and Ryouta’s banter, Akihito couldn’t stop the small smile that was forming on his lips. It was homely, the way that they all managed to get along. The penthouse was never quiet anymore, it was never lonely on the nights Asami worked late anymore and it was comfortable, so comfortable that Akihito started to forget it was temporary.

 

  

*

 

 

Much to Ryouta (and Akihito’s) annoyance, Hanabusa Elementary had allowed Ryouta to start the next Monday following his acceptance - they had hoped the school would wait until the start of the next term. On the morning of Ryouta’s first day, Kirishima arrived early in the morning with Ryouta’s new custom-to-fit uniform neatly pressed. As Akihito expected, Asami had been very insistent that they take the Lamborghini despite Ryouta admitting he had been joking and Akihito’s protests - they had even offered to take the limo instead. Ryouta came home that day and told them that it had drawn a lot of attention, rumours (both bad and good) had spread and a few girls asked about his ‘good looking older brother’. Ryouta’s first school week had finished with little problems – and he had even made friends.

Fuyumi hadn’t liked the day care centre the first day Akihito brought her there; he had barely made it to the parking lot when the care day called him. Fuyumi had started to cry once she realised Akihito was gone; she had been distracted by the toys for a split second. The Day-care was used to children crying when their parents left, but panicked when Fuyumi started struggling to breathe. In the end, it had taken Asami rushing to the care day to calm Fuyumi down – she was so worked up that neither Akihito nor Ryouta could do anything. After that they decided that the day care might not be the best idea, at least until Fuyumi recovered from her separation issues. 

Now, it was the weekend and mid-morning, Akihito sat on the sofa drinking a bottle of Pocari Sweat and texting his friends while Ryouta sat in front of the TV watching an anime. Akihito almost choked on his drink as he read the latest text message from Takato.

 

"Aki-Nii-Chan, are you okay?" Ryouta asked, breaking his attention away from his show to pat Akihito on the back. Tears welled up in Akihito eyes as he coughed, the initial shock was wearing off and now an anxious knot was forming in his stomach. 

 

"Have you forgotten how to drink from a bottle, Akihito?" Asami teased as he entered the living room. Fuyumi followed behind him, one hand clutching onto the tail of Asami's shirt and the other holding a snack, "I'm sure Fuyu-chan would be happy to lead you one of hers" Asami said, referring to the Sippy cups that they had brought after Fuyumi spilt one too many drinks.   

 

"Shut up!" Akihito yelled, his voice strain "I was just shocked, Takato and Kou want to hang out with me today..." Akihito didn’t mind meeting with his friends at a bar, a restaurant, or a club again – they still had the membership cards for Braunii and it’d be a shame to waste it. Akihito considered making the suggestion to his friends, but he knew they reject the idea

 

"What’s the problem with that?" Ryouta asked confused, it wouldn’t be the first time Akihito had gone to hang out with his friends, it had never been a problem before and Akihito didn’t have any photo-shoots to do for the rest of the day

 

"They want to come  _here_ " Akihito knew that this was coming, his friends had asked for his address before and he had casually brushed them off. He knew that there was only so long he could get away with not telling his friends and parents where he lived. The excuse that he moved apartments often had worked with his parents, and they agreed to send any parcels and letters to Kou’s apartment, but that flimsy excused hadn’t worked on his friends. Akihito knew it was stupid to think that he had gotten away with it, but he hadn’t been expecting a random (though he was sure it was planning on their side) ambush.

 

“I’ll reiterate, ‘what’s the problem with that?’” Asami question, raising an eyebrow – the penthouse was just as much Akihito’s home as his own now, he didn’t mind Akihito bring anyone as long as they were trustworthy

 

“They don’t know anything, how the hell am I meant to explain this” Akihito gestures to the occupants in the room. It was one thing to tell his friends about Asami, he had been preparing himself for it for awhile now, but he had no idea how to explain the children’s presence in the penthouse

 

"If it makes it easier for you, I can leave with the kids until you can explain everything to your friends, Akihito” Asami was willing to compromise with this, Takato and Kou meant a lot to Akihito, and Asami wasn’t sure that his lover would be able to handle any more needless worry. If their leaving for awhile would help Akihito to relax he’d do it

 

"Wait, you  _want_  to make things easier for him?" Ryouta was shocked, so far, he had seen Asami do everything  _but_ make things easier for Akihito. It seemed to be that mans favourite form of entertainment to watch his lover squirm

 

"Contrary to popular belief, I'm not a bad person" Asami fought the small smile that wanted to formed on his lips as a guilty expression flashed across his lover’s face – Akihito was always quick to assume that Asami was doing something illegal (and he was sometimes right) but when proved wrong, Akihito would turn extra nice in his guilt. Since being together Akihito had come to realise that Asami wasn’t a yakuza boss, he was a fixer, and that most of his income was from legal businesses.     

 

"Huh, I didn’t think you were a considerate boyfriend..."

 

"B-boyfriend?" Akihito stuttered, he was trying to convince himself that he hadn’t heard right, that Ryouta couldn’t possibly have seen through them

 

"What, you guys are dating right?" it was casual, the way Ryouta asked the question, but Akihito’s mind was going into overdrive

 

"How... How did you..." Akihito thought back, he was sure that they hadn’t said anything about their relationship to the children. He had made Asami agree to keep it a secret on the first night the kids stayed with them. Asami didn’t seem to mind either way, but Akihito didn’t want the kids to get any ideas. Akihito was still uncomfortable with his sexuality, which was to be expected, he had thought he was straight until he met Asami. Even now, Akihito wasn’t 100% sure what he identified as, but settled for the idea of being bisexual. After all, he had been attracted to women before Asami came into the picture – and Akihito was starting to realise more and more that he  _had_  been attracted to the odd man before meeting Asami too. It was a thought he hadn’t wanted to dwell on, but had ended up in a trance anyway. He remembered now, that back in high school he had been overly interested in one of his Senpai, to the point where he ended up following said Senpai down the wrong path. His Senpai was already a delinquent, he was good looking, fun and dangerous and Akihito had loved the adrenaline rush. Akihito had never before thought that his admiration could have actually been a crush. 

 

"Kids are really sharp with these things, Fuyumi knew too" Asami thought it was best not to mention that Fuyumi’s exact words were ‘ _is Aki-Chan your wife?’_ , Akihito had already been thrown off course and Asami wasn’t sure if his lover could take much more before he decided to never tell his friends. 

 

"But... I didn't... We didn't" Akihito had made sure that Asami kept his hands to himself while the kids were around. He had even gotten Asami to agree to keep their sexual encounters confined behind the excellent soundproofing of the secret room (despite how much Akihito 'hated' that damned room). 

 

“You live together but you’re not related, and you’re really, really close – seemed pretty obvious” Ryouta shrugged, he hadn’t expected Akihito to be so concerned with being found out. 

 

“But… But we’re both men” It was the only ‘valid’ reason Akihito had for denying the relationship. The age difference was somewhat of an issue, and added with their difference in wealth, people would assume that he was only after Asami’s money – Akihito had grown used to being called a gold digger, anyone that mattered knew and would know the truth

 

“Boys date boys in manga… and in America too” Ryouta didn’t understand what the problem was, too young to know about discrimination of that sort. Ryouta didn’t have adults to guide him and explain these things to him – all he had was slightly older children, giving their naive opinions on things and the information he gathered from fictional stories. 

 

“I’m concerned about the type of manga you’re reading…” Akihito didn’t particularly want to know which manga with homosexuality Ryouta had been reading. While he was in university he had made the mistake of looking over a girl’s shoulder, the girl had been squealing with her friends while reading a manga and curiosity had gotten the better of him. It was, at the time, the most erotic piece of art he had ever seen and the blush that had appeared on his cheeks was apparently endearing to the girls. Akihito didn’t want Ryouta’s innocence to be tainted by some erotic manga

 

“Don’t try to change the subject, Akihito. You haven’t replied to your friends yet”

 

“What am I meant to tell them…?” Akihito couldn’t make sense of what had happened in his life since meeting Asami, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to explain it to another person without them making wrong judgements about his relationship with Asami. He’d never be able to tell anyone how they met, or about their 2nd (or 3rd) meeting and Akihito wasn’t even sure when exactly their relationship progressed from ‘sex-buddies’ to lovers – there had never been any discussion, it was a slow change that neither of them noticed until they were in too deep to end it.

 

“Akihito, I think you’re making a bigger deal out of this than needs be. From what you’ve told me your friends are extremely understanding, and I doubt they’ll treat you any differently” Asami didn’t believe that Akihito doubted his friend’s loyalties, but was doubting himself instead. Akihito’s own beliefs about their relationship became that of his friends somewhere in Akihito’s mind. Asami had hoped that his casual way of letting everyone (that was trusted) know they were together would rub off on Akihito, but instead it had led to Akihito worrying about Asami’s reputation if the media were to find out he was in a homosexual relationship. 

 

“I know… But now I’ve left it so long…” Akihito stared at his phone as more messages flashed up, both Takato and Kou sending text after text demanding that Akihito reply to them and sends an address. He had promised to tell them everything in the limo, but the past 2 weeks had been filled with the kids. Sighing, Akihito picked up his phone and sent a message with the address of the penthouse before he had time to think about it for any longer. The messages died down after that, Akihito guessed that they were together somewhere staring at the address in shock. Akihito knew that by now, Takato and Kou must have realised that the ‘rich girlfriend’ was more than just an ‘owns a sports car’ kind of rich – but they wouldn’t be expecting a penthouse, especially not one in the most expensive part of Tokyo. Akihito felt like his heart stopped as he waited for more messages to come through

 

“… Aki-Chan is broken!” Fuyumi exclaimed once she took note of Akihito’s faraway look, she had been eating the packet of crisps before but now her little head bounced around as she followed the conversation, her eyes laying on whoever was speaking. 

 

“Fuyumi, a human can’t be broken. Its call daydreaming” Ryouta corrected, just as Akihito’s phone flashed to indicating that he had received another text. 

 

“They’re coming…” Akihito groaned, finally snapping out of his trance. His friends confirmed that they were on the way, and then the texts stopped again meaning they had probably left Takato’s house and were heading for the train station. Akihito was sure that it was the fastest his friends had ever gotten ready for one of their meet-ups, they probably wanted to get to the penthouse before Akihito could change his mind and flee “They’re never going to let me live this down” Asami decided to leave Akihito to mope on the sofa, the damage had been done. Asami knew that though Akihito’s friends would definitely tease his lover, they wouldn’t betray him and a weight would be lifted from Akihito’s shoulders. If there had even been a shadow of doubt, Asami wouldn’t let Akihito ruin a friendship that his lover valued so much – though he believed that true friends wouldn’t care about something so trivial, Akihito would lose apart of himself if he lost Takato and Kou. Now that the conversation had seemingly come to its end, Asami began reading through the reports Kirishima had sent him with Fuyumi nestled on his lap, and Fuyumi took to playing games on Asami’s I-pad. 

 

“Aki-Nii-Chan, are you okay?” It was the first time Ryouta had seen Akihito looking sullen about his own problems. Mentally slapping himself for making Ryouta worry about him, Akihiko smiled and ruffled Ryouta’s hair before speaking 

 

“Yeah, I’m fine… Want to help me make dango, we still have everything here for it. We can cook any snacks you like too” Akihito began walking to the kitchen as he spoke; he knew that cooking a few snacks would help to keep him from panicking unnecessarily. Akihito enjoyed being a host, and cooking easy to eat foods was the best way to make sure his guests were happy. Ryouta followed behind without question, he didn’t enjoy cooking but being in a kitchen with Akihito was fun. They made small talk as they made a large selection of snacks, more than what would be needed for 6 people. They had just put a few of the foods that needed to be baked into the oven when Asami entered the kitchen

 

“Akihito, the lobby just called – your friends are on their way up” Akihito had almost,  _almost_ , forgotten why he had started to stress food, “… Are you trying to feed an army?” Asami asked as he looked around at the range of foods prepared. He had heard Akihito mention Dango, but there were also several other foods that were a surprise. 

 

“They eat a lot!” Akihito said, but the excuse was weak and they all knew it, “And you don’t like sweet things so…” Akihito added, he had made a few traditional Japanese snacks that weren’t sweet. He hadn’t realised he was doing it until that snacks were already made. It made him feel like a wife, being so thoughtful and accommodation. Akihito convinced himself that it was just part of being a good host, but that didn’t stop his cheeks from turning red when Asami threw him an amused glance. Surprisingly, Akihito found himself feeling relieved when the doorbell rang indicating his friends arrival. He zipped out of the kitchen, refusing to make eye contact with the man.

Takato and Kou could almost feel Akihito’s tension as they waited behind the closed door, usually by now they would have rang again but they didn’t want to seem rude, and part of them wondered if they had gotten the address wrong. 

Akihito took a deep breath before opening the door, both of his friends stood gaping at him, after a polite chorus of ‘ojamashimasu’ they stepped into the genkan. As they took off their shoes, Takato and Kou flashed each other a worried glance – they hadn’t expected Akihito to be so nervous. Knowing that words wouldn’t help, Kou threw his arms around his best friend and squeezed tightly 

 

“This place is awesome Aki-Chan, there is a concierge!” after another squeeze, Kou released his friend – he hoped the hug helped to release some of the tension from Akihito. 

 

“Aki-Chan, this is the last place I expected you to be living. How the hell did someone manage to convince you to move in here?” Takato asked, they knew Akihito well, and knew that the boy didn’t like living in luxury like this. Akihito would feel better living in a rundown apartment building as long as it was something he got through his own means. Akihito hated to take advantage of others, so would refuse to accept anything he thought he wouldn’t be able to repay, even if it was offered as a gift. 

 

“Do you remember after the whole Hong Kong thing, we got back to my apartment and it was empty?” Akihito motioned for them to follow him as he headed for the living room, where Asami was with the children. Akihito still hadn’t worked out how he was going to explain that part of things, Kou would definitely jump to conclusions.

 

“Yeah, and there was a key stuck to the wall with the name Asami… Ah, so this is Asami-san’s penthouse” Takato had wanted to know more about this ‘Asami’ person since they had found Akihito’s empty apartment – he didn’t trust them. What kind of a person made someone move home without their permission - it had been right after Akihito had gone missing for a few months too, meaning that they more than likely had something to do with that as well. Akihito stopped walking just outside of the living room, he had finally worked out a way to explain everything, and he didn’t want to throw his friends into the deep-end.

 

“Um, about Asami…” Akihito started, wondering if should explain the children first or his male lover – but fate had other plans, Fuyumi poked her head around the corner. Kou saw her first, the girl looked at the strangers in the apartment before setting her attention on Akihito 

 

“Aki-Chan, can I have Pocky now!” Fuyumi asked, as she latched herself onto Akihito’s leg. Akihito stuttered in response, he hadn’t expected Fuyumi to appear at a time like this, the girl usually stuck to Asami like super glue. 

 

“A… A child?” Kou could hardly believe his eyes, the girl looked like she could be Akihito’s little sister – they had the same soft features and their hair colour was identical. Akihito’s hair colour was strange, no one believed that it was natural, for someone else in Japan to have the same hair colour, and be so familiar with Akihito – there was only one conclusion Kou could draw “Akihito… You have a kid?” he didn’t want to believe it, that Akihito would hide something this big from them, but Akihito had been so tight lipped lately… 

 

“Wait, wait, wait – no, I can explain… Probably…” Akihito waved a hand in front of his face as he spoke, he could see where his friends’ conclusion came from – Fuyumi could pass off as a 2-year-old, and they did look alike, “Come in here, we can sit and talk. Fuyumi-Chan, you can have the box of Pocky that is in the kitchen” Fuyumi instantly detached herself and ran to get her treat. Ryouta was still in the living room, but Asami was missing, ignoring his friends gasps at seeing another child in the penthouse, Akihito sat down on the sofa next to Ryouta. He waited until his friends took a seat on the sofa opposite before speaking

 

“They’re not my kids, or Asami’s kids – we’re looking after them. This is Ryouta, the little girl is Fuyumi” Akihito explained, hoping that his friends’ expressions would change from the current one of hurt disbelief. 

 

“…You got involved in something that doesn’t concern you again, didn’t you?” Kou’s expression changed to a scolding look as he spoke, they were used to Akihito getting himself into troublesome situations

 

“He did, they were strangers but they dragged us here and made us stay” Ryouta said before Akihito had the chance to explain the situation properly. Led by Fuyumi, Asami entered the living room with his phone in his hand. Akihito's friends stopped the lecture they were giving Akihito to stare wide-eyed at him. Asami wasn't sure if the looks of pure shock were because of his gender or because they recognised him. Everyone (expect Fuyumi) froze, the tension began to radiated off of Akihito again as he waited for his friends to react

 

“Wait… You’re the man who picked Aki-Chan up after that New Year’s party” Takato said, finally able to remember where he had seen the man’s face before

 

“Ah! Do you remember Aki kept calling someone called ‘Asami’ – Tamaki said it was a man too” Kou said as he remembered another detail from that night, Tamaki had taken Akihito’s phone and called ‘Asami’ thinking that it was Akihito’s girlfriend. At the time, Akihito hadn’t been that drunk and had panicked, they hadn’t understood what the fuss was about. After a few more drinks, Akihito went from prank calls, to yelling down the phone and then finally the drunken tearful confession phone call

 

“And then the key… Damn it, we could have worked out the mystery of the rich girlfriend ages ago!” Everything was slowly falling into place - all of the confusion and unanswered questions, Akihito's reluctance and the bruises

 

"All the signs... The signs!" It seemed obvious now, so painfully obvious, that the ‘girlfriend’ was a man, this man.

 

"To be fair, I'm surprised either of you remember anything from that night. You weren't as drunk as _Aki-Chan_ here, but you weren't far off from it" Akihito had complained about being called ‘Aki-Chan’ by his friends on numerous occasions, the nickname had apparently been started by Kou when they were still in elementary school and had stuck, even through Akihito’s delinquent days. The grim memory of being called ‘Asami-Chan’ during his own school days was the only thing keeping Asami from adopting the nickname as well. He would never let anyone get away with referring to him with ‘-Chan’ now, but back then he had been a normal student with no power to speak off.

Akihito was shocked to say the least, they all seemed to fall into an easy rhythm, Kou was great with kids and Takato talked business with Asami. Takato and Kou were also impressed with Asami's ability to walk normally with Fuyumi clung to his leg, hanging off of his arm or sitting on his foot. It was comfortable, and Akihito was glad that Asami had decided to take the day off; telling Kirishima it was for 'moral support'. Kirishima didn't appreciate the disappearance of their boss, but he didn't fuss, instead he agreed with a sigh to run the business for a day (again).

When asked how they met, Akihito skipped a lot of details, and put it down to Sudou Shuu - since the man was still missing and wildly believed to be dead, the truth would more than likely never come out. Akihito told them that he had photographed Sudou making deals with drugs and weapons smugglers, that Sudou had threatened him and that Asami had gotten involved because he owned the club – which was true, to some extent. Takato hadn’t said anything, but Akihito could see that there were still questions they wanted answers for. After all, he still hadn’t told them that Fei Long had been the one behind his long trip to Hong Kong or that Fei Long had kidnapped them too. They hadn’t asked any questions about why they were kidnapped or by whom, they had just accepted it as their fate due to their association with Akihito. It hadn’t felt like they were being kidnapped until the end, and even then, no harm came to them and they were released shortly afterwards (they weren’t aware that someone died as a results, neither was Akihito).

They stayed in the living room for hours, eating through the mountain of snacks and playing video games. Asami occasional disappeared to answer the odd phone call that couldn’t be ignored, but they managed to get him to play a few games with them

 

"Hey Aki, I've been wondering since we got here... Why don't you call your lover by his first name?" Takato had been waiting for the right time, the video game they had been playing was paused and they now sat stuffing their faces with the last bits of food

 

"W-what?" Akihito felt his cheeks burning red, just the idea of calling Asami so familiarly was embarrassing. He had gotten suspicious when Kuroda Shinji called Asami by his first name, and had even questioned the man on it, yet he still hadn’t been able to do it. Akihito had no idea why he found moving to first name bases so mortifying, he had always called his ex-girlfriends by their first names, but Asami was Asami - he was different

 

"Yeah Aki, you have a nice little family here, a husband and kids, but you're still being so unfamiliar" Kou didn’t think Akihito would take kindly to the ‘happy family’ implication, but Akihito and Asami argued like an old married couple (though it was obvious that the older man was just trying to get on Akihito’s nerves). There was also the looks they gave each other when the thought no one else was looking and the light touches. The true story behind their relationship didn’t matter to Kou, Akihito may be good at lying to strangers but he couldn’t lie to them, the fact that their love was mutual and that Akihito was happy was all Kou cared about

 

"At least he isn't calling him Asami-san or Asami-sama, like everyone else" Takato had heard enough drunken rants from Akihito to know that almost everyone called Asami by ‘-Sama’, he had also heard it from the few people that popped in and out of the penthouse to drop things of  

 

"Could you imagine Aki using the title '-Sama' for anyone?" Kou had only heard Akihito use ‘-Sama’ when mocking people or while they had taken on a part-time job at a store during university, and even then it had been strained, especially when the customer was being unnecessarily difficult or rude

 

"He'd rather give up sushi and ice cream" Akihito’s love for food was known to anyone who stayed around the blonde for long enough, good quality sushi and ice-cream (the sweeter the better) were some of Akihito’s favourite dishes. Takato had gained Akihito’s friendship through food, they had both been staying in the dorms at University and Takato had cooked a hot pot for everyone. Takato hadn’t thought much of the bubbly first years that were so grateful for his cooking, until they befriended him and started to share their meals with him

 

"Hey, guys - I'm  _right here_ you know" Akihito was tired of trying to ignore them, and seeing the amusement on Asami’s face was annoying – he was starting to wonder if letting his friends meet Asami was a mistake, he could fend them off most of the time, but if they ganged up on him he wouldn’t stand a chance

 

"Why does everyone like to tease you, Aki-Nii-Chan…? Ryuichi-Nii-san does it too" Ryouta thought that Asami was just mean, after all he was also victim to the teasing, but for Akihito’s friends to be doing the same it must be an unwritten code  

 

“It’s because Aki-Chan is so easy to annoy, he gets riled up quickly” Kou said, grinning, teasing Akihito was definitely one of his favourite pastimes

 

“I do not!” Akihito earned a fit of laughter at his hot protest, he accidentally proved them right, but admitting that wouldn’t help anything. The rest of the evening went smoothly, by the time Takato and Kou left to go home in one of Asami’s cars Fuyumi was already in bed and Ryouta had fallen asleep on the sofa.

 

“… He’s asleep?” Kirishima asked, he had spent the day at Sion but thought he should give the last report to Asami in person, especially since it was regarding Ryouta and Fuyumi. Kirishima had hoped Ryouta would be awake, but he had lost track of time while making sure everything was running smoothly

 

“Yeah, let me take him to bed” Akihito carefully lifted Ryouta, he knew that Ryouta would prefer to walk but it was pointless to wake him just to walk a few metres. Ryouta didn’t stir when Akihito placed him on the bed next to Fuyumi, Akihito smiled softly at them. Fuyumi rolled around in her sleep and Ryouta slept on his back with his arms and legs spread out like a starfish but they still barely took up 1/3 of the double bed. Akihito dragged himself out of the guest room, it was weird to watch people sleeping - the last thing he wanted was Ryouta waking up to find him acting like a creep. Akihito walked back towards the living room, pausing when he heard Kirishima’s voice – he had expected Kirishima to leave promptly after leaving the report, it was late and the man had been running a business on his own for the day. Akihito already thought that Kirishima wasn’t exactly human, but he was sure that the man needed to sleep. He stood just out of sight by the door frame - it was a bad habit that Akihito had developed, hiding every time Asami was talking to someone in the living room. He wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, he just felt too awkward to walk into the living room half way through a serious conversation – especially if the other person was that damned District Attorney

 

“Asami-Sama, I’ve conducted the interviews regarding Ryouta-Kun and Fuyumi-Chan. I’ve found a family-” Akihito felt his heart shatter. Of course, of course this would happen, this arrangement was never permanent. The rest of Kirishima’s words were drowned out, Akihito wasn’t sure how he could feel so numb yet feel so much at the same time. He couldn’t breathe, he didn’t want to think, but Kirishima’s words rang so loudly,

‘ _I’ve found a family’_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like the formatting has completely gone to shit in this one, AO3 still confuses me but I'll get there (笑)
> 
> Random fact!  
> There is logic behind the name 'Braunii' and it's linked with 'Dracaena'
> 
> Another random fact, for anyone that doesn't speak Japanese, both Aki & Fuyu have season names :D (Fuyu/冬 means Winter and Aki/秋 means Autumn).  
> I originally planned to give Ryouta a name beginning with 'Ryuu'... (blame Kise Ryouta)


	3. I will never accept losing them...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *sweat drop*  
> So I'm back exactly a year later! Hurray!
> 
> I had planned to release this before I started Uni... But then I started packing and well it all went to shit...  
> I've now been studying Japanese and Korean for the past year, it probably wasn't a good idea to do two similar languages at the same time... both a beginners level, but I passed so it must be fine... (I obviously hate myself though, since I've also taught myself the Russian alphabet for no reason and am planning to do British Sign Language during my 2nd year, ha)
> 
> I've also just returned from spending a month in Japan, so the Disneyland part of this chapter has a lot of my experience of being there (would highly recommend). 
> 
> Anyway, Happy Birthday, Asami!  
> Once again this chapter ended up being a lot longer than I had planned.... I'm not sure how an 8,000 target turned into 10,500 (I blame that Disney section...)
> 
> There is one more chapter coming up, I promise not to take a year to write it this time... The next chapter will take place in the future, so it's more of an epilogue

Akihito could feel his heart shatter, this was the whole point, they were meant to be finding the children somewhere to live – a perfect family. Akihito was talking before he realised the words falling from his mouth, he stepped into the room – both Asami and Kirishima’s heads turned in shock. Not over the fact that Akihito had appeared, both had sensed Akihito’s presence, but over the hateful words that fell from the boys mouth.

 

“So, what, Glasses finds a family and that’s it, you don’t ask anyone else and just ship them off - because Glasses is so perfect that he could never get anything wrong?” Akihito let out a sarcastic laugh, “I forgot, you’re both so used to moving people around like useless pawns on a chessboard, why would this be any different” Akihito felt hollow, almost as hollow as the words. Somewhere at the back of his mind Akihito knew that the family would be perfect, of course they would be perfect. Kirishima would never settle for less, and it had taken him a month to find anyone – that was a long time for the man that got everything done yesterday. The other men in the room didn’t have to share more than a glance to know that they had to trend carefully – this was the explosive side of Akihito. If either of them did anything to detonate the boy further, they’d be scouring Tokyo for hours to find him. 

 

“… Akihito?” Hearing Asami’s voice, hearing him use the same tone he did with Ryouta made Akihito snap back to his senses. It had been so long his he had called Kirishima ‘Glasses’, they had all come passed that point. It felt suffocating, and Akihito couldn’t bring himself to meet Kirishima’s eyes. The man always seemed so stoic, but he had feelings and Akihito was sure the return of that nickname would hurt them.

Now he felt like an idiot, Kirishima was only trying his best, was only trying to do what he thought was best for the children. They both were, Asami and Kirishima, and he had just insulted them both. Instead of apologising like he wanted to, Akihito ran. If it had been a few months ago, he would have left the penthouse, but instead he shut himself in his darkroom. He wanted to lock the door, he wasn’t sure how long he’d be able to hold down the tears and Asami was the last person he wanted to see him cry. But Asami was also the one person he wanted to see more than anything. Asami was an asshole at times, but he always seemed to know what to do or say to cheer Akihito up.

It didn’t take long, after sharing another concerned look with Kirishima, Asami followed Akihito down the hall. After hesitating at the door for a few seconds, Asami berated himself and pushed the door open. He knew that the words Akihito had thrown were no foundation of the boy’s actual feelings – but considering how their relationship started and how often he manipulated Akihito into doing things, Asami wouldn’t be surprised if Akihito really thought it was all a game to them, the methodical chessboard.

It took a few seconds for Asami’s eyes to adjust to the darkness, he had shut the door immediately behind him in case Akihito was developing any photographs. Akihito stayed huddled in the corner, he watched with hooded eyes as Asami spotted him then joined him under the desk. It felt ridiculous, sitting under a desk in the near pitch black with Asami next to him. Where Akihito easily folded into the gap, Asami’s long limbs were stretched out in all directions, his broad shoulders filling the space. They stayed silent for awhile, Asami waiting for Akihito to speak and Akihito desperately trying to calm his emotions while finding the words to say

 

"I... I want to keep them..." Akihito whispered, finally admitting out loud what he had only just admitted to himself. He had never thought he’d want children. Akihito loved kids, loved playing with them but never thought of raising his own. How Ryouta and Fuyumi had changed all that in less than 4 weeks, he had no idea, all he knew is that the thought of them leaving now was breaking his heart.

 

"... You grew attached?" Asami asked softly, he had expected some attachment – it was impossible for Akihito not to grow attached. The boy grew attached to people he met in passing, never mind someone whom he lived with.

 

"What, and you didn't?” Akihito found it hard to believe that Asami didn’t care about the kids to some degree, though he doubted Asami would have willing helped the children some years ago. Akihito had heard time and time again that Asami didn’t let many into his home, yet he had willingly opened the doors to Akihito and the children. It had taken a long time for Akihito to believe he was more than just a sex toy to Asami, but knowing that he was the only one that could get Asami to do things the man would never usually do was evidence enough, “Heartless bastard" Akihito felt a single tear run down his cheek, he had been trying so hard not to let the dam break, he knew that once the tears started he wouldn’t be able to stop them. 

 

"Akihito?" Asami didn’t reply to the question, he didn’t talk about his emotions and he knew that Akihito, once calm, would know that Asami had also grown too attached to the kids. Asami didn’t allow many people into his life and home, but from the second that he had watched that CCTV footage he had started to grow attached. There had something about Ryouta that reminded him of Akihito – Ryouta was fighting to survive. If there had been no feelings, Asami would have still helped the children (Akihito would have never allowed for otherwise) but he would have left them with a trusted employee and paid for them to take time off until the kids were adopted.  

 

 "I love them... I... I never thought about having kids before, but this past month has been hectic..." the sound of tears were now thick in Akihito’s voice, Asami couldn’t see his lovers face but he could hear the pain. Asami hadn’t thought about keeping the children before, it didn’t seem practical for them to have children. But now his mind was running over the possibilities.

 

"Aki, think about it - with business and your job, we'd hardly have time for them. Plus, we have enemies, loads of them - what would happen if they tried to use the children against us?" Asami didn’t want to think about it, it was dangerous enough with Akihito – too many people knew about their relationship, too many people that were waiting for a kink in the shield. If they found a weakness they would stop at nothing, he wouldn’t put it passed some of the worst in the underworld, and even some of the petty wannabes, to kidnap children to get to the Kingpin. Akihito created enemies too, though Asami usually eradicated the worse of them before they could case any trouble – Akihito knew too much, and there were many people that didn’t appreciate the photos the journalist took.

 

"I know, I know - you don't have to say it... I just..." Akihito trailed off, he didn’t want to think about, he didn’t want to consider the possibilities, "I'm sure we could get around it... They'd have to have bodyguards at all times, their schools would have to have exceptional security..." if he thought about the possibilities it’d make letting go harder, it was easy to shallow the pain if it was impossible to avoid – but he couldn’t stop talking, not when Asami sat listening, quietly giving Akihito strength without realising it. Asami shifted slight, sitting in the cramped space was uncomfortable but he was willing to endure a little discomfort for his lover – Akihito welcomed the embrace that Asami pulled him into after a little negotiation with the wall. Akihito seemed to relax by a fraction, his head buried deep in Asami’s chest

 

"You’re serious about this..." Asami said after a moment of silence, this wasn’t the blindly optimistic Akihito making plans based on his heart and not the reality, this was the journalist side of Akihito – the side that many people underestimated, including Asami, and even Akihito himself. Akihito knew he could get into almost any building, and he knew he could escape and evade even the most persistent persuaders – but he doubted his abilities when it came to the tactical side of things. Akihito was smart, and if he didn’t throw himself into danger to protect others, Asami was sure that Akihito would never have been kidnapped. 

He continued to hold Akihito close to his chest as the boy cried softly. Asami could feel his heart shattering as he listened to his lovers pained cries - he didn't see Akihito cry often. Not including the first time he'd seen Akihito cry - Asami could only remember seeing this vulnerable side of Akihito three times, and two of those were after being kidnapped by Fei Long. 

 

"Okay" Asami said, mostly to himself – he couldn’t believe he was actually considering keeping the brats, but his heart couldn’t take watching his lover in pain. What Akihito said was true, they could find a way around it, and Kirishima would be willing to help, as would Suoh, both of them had also grown attached to the children. Suoh would select the best bodyguards in the team to guard the children. Kuroda Shinji would be able to sort out the legal side of things, the man had already made the children’s missing reports disappear.

 

"Okay?" Akihito pulled away from his lover’s chest and stared up into his face, he couldn’t see the gold eyes, but Akihito had seen those eyes enough to be able to picture them in his sleep (not that he’d ever admit to dreaming about Asami).

 

"We'll look into it" even in the dark, Asami could see the way that Akihito’s face lit up at his words, "but, the kids have to be the ones to make the decision" Asami wanted the children to have the final say in this, they deserved to be able to make decisions about their future. They were young, and they would have no idea the implications that staying with them would have, but Asami was sure that it would lessen Akihito’s guilty conscience if anything were to happen in the future if it was willing on the kid’s part. Ryouta was older than his age mentally, though it was still painstakingly obvious how very young he was, it wouldn’t be long before Ryouta worked out that Asami worked on the wrong side of the law. They had no way of knowing how Ryouta would react to that, and Fuyumi would more than likely mirror her brother. Ryouta was obviously not against being on the wrong side of the way when push came to shove, but how deep did that run? 

 

“Thank you… Ryu-Ryuichi…” Akihito was glad it was dark, he didn’t want Asami to see how much something as simple as saying the man’s first name made him blush. Now calm, Akihito remembered the hateful words he had thrown at Kirishima, and Asami too “Asami, about earlier – what I said, I didn’t mean any of it” Akihito couldn’t believe he had thrown words meant to hurt, he called Asami a bastard all the time – but they both knew it was more of an affectionate term, and words seemed to roll off of Asami. Akihito was sure Kirishima was the same, after all, they must have heard much worse than the petty words Akihito had thrown, but it didn’t make it any better. Akihito thought of Kirishima as a friend, careless words from a friend hurt more than anything a rival or enemy could say.

 

“Oh, it’s ‘Asami’ again - what happened to ‘Ryuichi’, Akihito?” the smirk was hidden but Akihito could hear it in the man’s voice and it infuriated him all the same. Akihito threw his fist out into the general direction of Asami, his fists landed on the solid muscle of Asami’s chest. Drool over that toned chest and those abs or nurse his bruised pride, Akihito wasn’t sure which he wanted to do more

 

“Argh! I’m trying to be serious here” Akihito growled, punching the man’s chest again, putting more force into his swing this time – the punch still had little effect, the man’s chuckles were evidence to that. They fell back into silence

 

“… Do you really think you’re just a pawn to me, Akihito?” It was probably his fault, after all, he had said as much in the beginning. And had never told Akihito his worth in words, speaking in actions alone could only go so far. Asami was also sure that Sudou had said something to Akihito, one too many times Akihito would mention the man’s name then retreat. But the look on Akihito’s face said more than Akihito would ever say out loud, there was guilt forefront, but Asami could see the underlying concern, fear and longing,

 

“Akihito, I…” could he really say it? It was obvious; at this point Asami had little hope of ever hiding their relationship from the public and their enemies. The media had already caught wind once, a healthy amount of threatening and bribery had silenced the papers and kept any news from getting to Akihito’s newspaper – but with the children, they wouldn’t be able to keep quiet much longer.

Yet, Asami still felt like admitting his feelings would paint a giant target sign on Akihito’s head. It went against his logical thinking, admitting something to Akihito was hardly screaming it to the world – and what did it matter if he did scream it to the world, not many were stupid enough to harm what was his. He’d burn Tokyo down, he’d burn the whole of Japan down, if anything happened to Akihito.  

 

“I love you, Akihito” the words he had always avoided felt natural on his lips, it felt like a weight had been lifted at the same time as another added. Asami knew the feeling was mutual, Akihito was easier to read than a book, but there was still that one corner of his mind that asked how anyone that shined as brightly as Akihito could love the darkness that he was.

Slowly, Asami registered the foreign feeling as anxiety – the last time he had felt it was when he had seen Akihito as the target of a bullet back in that warehouse with Sudou Shuu, and before that on Fei Long’s boat. Asami didn’t get anxious; it was a useless emotion that only served as a barrier. Everything was a calculated risk, there was no need to be anxious – but Akihito didn’t follow that logic. Akihito didn’t follow any logic that Asami had previously known, the boy was mysterious yet remained predictable.

 

“… I love you too, bastard” the words were so soft, that Asami almost missed them. They stayed there, both unwilling to move in case it destroyed the moment. The last thing Akihito had expected was a confession, he never thought he’d hear those words from Asami’s mouth – at first, he had wished for it, and had been tempted to confess to the man multiple times but had always dismissed the thought. Fear of rejection had lessened over the months and years, yet the thought of confessing never got easier. They had never even ‘officially’ started dating, at some point they moved from being ‘fuck buddies’ to thinking of each other as lovers. Neither had noticed the transition until months later, thinking back, they thought the change happened during the time Akihito was under Fei Long’s ‘protection’. A noise from the hallway brought them back into the present.

 

“We better make sure Kei doesn’t burn the apartment down…” Asami shuffled forward carefully, Akihito still on his lap, and stood them both up in the middle of the room. Akihito, used to working in the dim lighting in his workroom, found the door easily – the artificial light from the hallway was almost blinding. They spotted Kirishima heading towards the living room from the direction of the kids room

 

“Fuyumi woke up to use the toilet, she’s asleep now” Kirishima explained on seeing Asami and Akihito, he didn’t question why they had been huddled into a small dark room and followed them back into the living room, “Akihito, are you okay?” Kirishima asked once they were back in the living room and seated. Kirishima had expected Akihito to be upset when the kids left, saying goodbye to them would be difficult, but he had been expecting Akihito to be happy that there was a family waiting to take both Ryouta and Fuyumi. More than one of the families Kirishima had interviewed had only wanted one child, or already had multiple children – Kirishima wanted the kids to have parents of their own, they deserved to be the centre of attention, not a new addition to ‘good deeds’ act.

 

“I should be the one asking you that… About what I said earlier, I’m sorry, Kei-san” Akihito gave the man a deep bow, he felt like a child – how was he planning to raise two kids when he stilled behaved like a kid himself? Kirishima instantly dismissed the apology, insisting that he took no insult from the earlier outburst.

 

“We’re considering keeping the brats, Kei”

 

“I’ll look into it” Kirishima could barely keep the smile off of his face, but he schooled his features back to the professional poker face – with a bow and more reassurance to Akihito, Kirishima left the penthouse. He’d probably never admit it, but he was more than content for his boss and Akihito to keep the kids, and he had already started to plan for that eventuality. Kirishima hadn’t thought it likely, he knew Asami had had no interest in having children, despite many being willing to give the man an heir.

Ryouta would be the perfect heir, the boy way already started to mimic Asami in his ways, and looked up to Asami immensely, claiming that he was going to be ‘just like Asami’ when he grows up. He was already interested in the more complicated and boring side of the business, never hesitant to ask Kirishima a never ending list of increasingly probing questions. And had even done well with the small tasks Kirishima had set for the boy when Ryouta insisted on tagging along with Asami to work. A kid with Akihito’s spunk and Asami’s brains, the boy was going to be hell in a few years. 

 

 

*

 

 

Ryouta woke to an animated discussion in the living room. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Ryouta slips out of bed – once again Fuyumi had woken before him, he no longer panicked when he woke to a cold and empty bed. Ryouta found the living room packed with several people he had never seen before. Fuyumi sat in the middle of the action, talking happily to another little girl while the ‘grown-ups’ talked about things.

 

“Ryouta, good morning” Akihito greeted, once he noticed Ryouta hovering by the doorway. With the attention now on him, Ryouta slipped into the living room and straight to where Akihito stood, hoping to hide behind the older man he had started to think of as the brother he never had but always wanted.

 

“This concerns you, Ryouta – we have something important to ask you” Asami said, the words did nothing to reassure Ryouta – usually when a bunch of strange official looking adults appeared and someone said that, they were going to be sent back to the orphanage. Though, in this situation, Ryouta guessed it meant that some of these people wanted to foster them. Ryouta gripped onto Akihito’s shirt and moved to stand directly behind the older man, hoping to disappear completely. Ryouta let out a stream of weak protests as he felt himself being detached from Akihito’s shirt and lifted to sit on Asami’s lap, Akihito was sitting next to them in a second, that soft reassuring smile on his face.

 

“Ryouta, would you like to stay with us?” Akihito wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the answer, he wanted to believe that the children enjoyed living with them – but they might want a normal family, a mother, father and a dog – not two men. Akihito had only just started to accept his relationship with Asami, and he knew that the majority of Japan would never accept it – he didn’t even have the guts to tell his parents. Ryouta saw nothing wrong with their relationship, but that didn’t mean he’d want them as parents

 

“Wait, really – you want to keep us?” Ryouta stared wide eyed between the two of them, he had wished he could stay with them multiple times during the past month – but he knew that Akihito and Asami were busy, he didn’t think they’d have time for a child. After his initial confusion about what Asami and Akihito wanted, he accepted that they were genuinely being nice - and hoped to stay with them until he out stayed his welcome.

 

“Yes, we do – but only if you want to stay here” was Asami’s input – Ryouta hadn’t expected to get a choice in the matter. At the orphanage they were shipped out to willing parents quickly, it would often be someone they had only met once before at an event, or sometimes someone they had never heard of. The social workers would brush off their wants, deciding that children didn’t know or understand so couldn’t make important decisions.

 

“Of course I do” there wasn’t a shadow of doubt in Ryouta’s mind, the past month had been the best month of his life – he wasn’t willing to give that up if he didn’t have to. He was sure it was the same for Fuyumi, the girl that had always stuck to him like glue was now happy to run off with anyone that wasn’t a stranger – she made friends with most of Asami’s employees and Ryouta would often hear that she had spent the day at the park with one of the bodyguards while he was at school and everyone else at work. She had also started attending the kindergarten again, on the first day Akihito had stayed with her for an hour until he was able to slip away unnoticed

 

“Of course!” Fuyumi mirrored, as always happy to follow her brother. But this time, it was a decision she would have made even without Ryouta. Fuyumi adored Akihito and Asami, she even liked Kirishima who secretly spoiled her with sweets and Suoh who was like a giant climbing frame, “that means Yuki can be my forever best friend, right?” Fuyumi asked, referring to the girl sitting with her, Suoh’s 4 year old daughter. Suoh’s wife, Rise, was sick and had insisted that Suoh take the little girl with him since he was only going to Asami’s penthouse upstairs. Suoh (as well as Risa and Yuki) and Kirishima lived in the same apartment complex as Asami – the Suoh family lived 3 floors down while Kirishima lived 2 floors down from the Penthouse. It was convenient for emergency meetings and going to work – the three of them always travelled to Sion together (unless one of them had the day off). With the confirmation, Asami and Akihito left Ryouta in the living room with the 4 year olds and headed to Asami’s office where the other adults had slipped off to. Kirishima was already lining to legal documents that read and signed, and Kuroda placed a few more onto Asami’s desk before pulling out his laptop.

 

 “Right, I’m going to have to pull more than a few strings to get this adoption signed off with both of your names…” Kuroda said with a sigh, he was sure no one would get suspicious of his movement, by now everyone knew not to question him. Only few were aware of his link to Asami, but they were aware that someone extremely powerful was working behind their district attorney. Kuroda made himself comfortable on a sofa that was pushed against a wall and became rewriting a few legal documents that would be needed for the adoption

 

“Both of our names?” Akihito asked, wondering if he had missed something in Kuroda’s words

 

“Yes, I want both of our names on the certificate” Asami regretted not having a camera to hand to capture the look on Akihito’s face.

 

“I didn’t think it was possible… Wait, is this legal?” Akihito was only just wrapping his mind around the fact that they were going to have children, though it didn’t surprise him that Asami was already 3 steps ahead and ever composed.

 

“I think it will raise less flags if I process it under American law, and then write it up as a transfer…” Kuroda mumbled, not taking his eyes off of the screen of his laptop. Akihito didn’t know much about the law, but he knew Japan wasn’t exactly welcoming to homosexual relationships, despite what anime and manga made out. Most people were find with homosexual relationships depicted in art and in foreign countries – but would have a heart attack if they found their neighbour in such a relationship. It wasn’t a shock that it was legal for two men to adopt in America; the country was usually portrayed as being superfluous.

 

“… Asami, you better not hurt anyone over this” Akihito wasn’t sure this so called ‘transfer’ was legal, it sounded like a polite way of saying ‘point a gun in their face until they sign the documents’. It went against his morals as a criminal photographer, though Akihito wasn’t exactly sure where those morals went when it came to Asami. Akihito wasn’t even sure why he stilled did his job. Originally, it had been his sense of justice and his need to feed his inner adrenaline junkie – but could he really judge others when his own lover carried a gun?

He never thought he’d be corrupt, but he would begrudgingly admit that he would break more than a few laws and turn his back on his work to help Asami. He had no place to judge Kuroda for manipulating his status to create loop holes for Asami, because he knew he’d do the same in a heartbeat. This realisation was what stopped his aversion to the man, and it was replaced with a level of respect – Kuroda had a lot more to lose if his relation to Asami came to light. Finding out that Kuroda was a cousin, not a potential rival for Asami’s heart, also helped (Akihito would fiercely deny being jealous).  

 

“I could always just adopt the three of you, Asami Akihito”

 

“No way in hell!” the thought had Akihito’s hair standing on end, he didn’t have to look in a mirror to know he was bright red, and Asami’s smug smirk only confirmed it

 

“You could have just told me you were ready to get married, Akihito” Kuroda had suggested that Asami adopt all three of them, it would save a lot of the legal hoo-ha, but Kirishima instantly dismissed the suggestion while Asami and Suoh snorted – luckily Akihito had been in the kitchen getting them all coffee and not in the office with them. Kuroda hadn’t understood what had caused the break in the farced, and he’d been stunned to hear Suoh laugh but watching Akihito’s reaction now over the top of his laptop, he understood and didn’t try to suppress the smile that came to his lips. He hadn’t exactly liked Akihito in the beginning, though him to be a pest and a hindrance to Asami – but he could see the appeal, and that light was contagious

 

“Shut up, bastard – who said anything about marriage!” Akihito yelled, then immediately left the room – he couldn’t believe he had let Asami rile him up so easily, _again._ It was irritating that no matter how long he spent with the man he wasn’t any less prone to the teasing.

 

 

*

 

 

“… Why am I here?” Asami had no idea how it had happened, the last thing he had expected was to be dragged out of bed at 6am, forced into casual clothes and pushed into the back of the limo before he had time to register what was going on, “I have work” though he was sure there was nothing important to do, but slaving over a pile of paperwork under Kirishima’s watchful eye was better than this

 

“Kei-San gave you the day off, quit complaining, it’ll be fun” Akihito said, leaving Asami wondering if he really was the boss, Asami couldn’t count the amount of times Kirishima had practically kicked him out of the office. In all honesty, Asami was sure that Kirishima would easily be able to run Sion on his own; the man just had no interest in ever running a company. He was happy being the reliable secretary. Every time one of Asami’s businesses were left without a manager, Kirishima stepped into the role – more than once Asami had tried to convince the man to stay, but Kirishima always politely declined and quickly found a suitable replacement.

It often puzzled Asami, as a man who refused to bow to anyone; he could hardly understand why his two most loyal employees never tried to climb the ladder no matter how many opportunities he threw at them. Asami could understand why most of Japan, and Asia, bowed to him – they weren’t left with much choice, but he was sure most wouldn’t hesitate to take him out if given the chance.

Asami shook himself from his musing and took in the scene in the limo. Akihito was just as excited as Fuyumi and Ryouta. Fuyumi sat singing popular Disney songs with Yuki, Ryouta was trying to act calm but he was bouncing in his seat as he spoke to Akihito and Suoh looked just as defeated as Asami.

 

“I thought this would be the last place you’d come” On nights out, when the three of them could act like friends, not boss with his employees, Suoh would admit to avoiding places that were ‘too happy’ like the plague, and Disneyland was high on that list. Yuki had been taken to Disneyland by her mother and Suoh’s wife, while Suoh was conveniently ‘stuck’ at work.

 

“Kei…” the bitterness was evident in Suoh’s voice, “Revenge, I think… He could have given Risa the day off instead…” Suoh had known it was Kirishima’s plan to send Asami to Disney with the kids, so didn’t think anything of it when he was assigned to drive the limo. Until he was woken by his overly excited daughter telling him how much fun they were going to have at Disneyland. He should have known Kirishima would never pass up the opportunity.

 

“Look, look, Disneyland!” Asami had no idea how Fuyumi had managed to spot it, but in the distance the tip of Cinderella’s Castle was barely visible

 

“… It’s not even 8am, was there any need to get here so early?” Asami had thought that Disneyland was far, but it had only been 30 minutes since they had left the penthouse, and the traffic was thick, as typical of Tokyo in the morning. He was sure the park wasn’t open for at least another hour

 

“We have to beat the queues, duh!” Akihito said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

 

 “Why do people feel the need to queue up before the park opens…?” Asami had long since given up placing logic on this, it felt like a different world – one he had no means to negotiate or understand, “… Is this my life now?” he asked Suoh, the man hadn’t changed much since having his daughter. Most in the office forget, until Suoh puts a name to a popular children’s character that had left everyone else puzzled or showed up with his briefcase covered in glitter and princess stickers.

 

“At least you didn’t go through the age of Teletubbies… That was a dark time” Suoh visibly grimaced, Asami had no idea what the Teletubbies were and he wasn’t keen to find out – he had seen enough of the nonsensical cartoons that Fuyumi preferred. For the rest of the drive and while the driver found somewhere to park, Suoh shared his grievances on having a young child. Asami concluded that ‘Disney’ really would be his life now, as well as ‘catchy’ songs and dances. The driver bid them good day and good luck as he left them standing in an overcrowding car park.

Kirishima, ever organised, had bought their park tickets already and had given them to Akihito that morning. Akihito led the way, they bypassed a queue of people that were buying tickets at the gate and joined a slightly shorter queue with others that already had tickets. Asami noted that almost everyone was sitting on blankets under umbrellas, and most wore Disney related clothing. It was only then that Asami noticed that Akihito had two bags with him. Akihito pulled 3 blankets out of the tote bag, Asami raised an eyebrow when Akihito handed him one of the blankets

 

“What?” Akihito asked catching Asami’s look, he handed another blanket to Yuki who instantly spread it on the floor and sat on it with Fuyumi, “I read some tips online, blankets are a must for the queue” Akihito made himself comfortable on a blanket with Ryouta, stuffing down the snort that threaten to bubble into uncontrollable laughter at seeing Asami and Suoh’s huge figures sitting cross legged on a blanket with cat faces on it. He instead busied himself by digging into the tote bag once again to pull out several bento boxes

 

“…How long have you known about this, Akihito?” Asami asked as he took one of the lunch boxes. The bento was well made, there was no way it was something Akihito had thrown together that morning. He had thought that the Disney fiasco was all Kirishima’s doing – Akihito was a terrible liar; Asami didn’t think his little lover was capable of plotting something like this without spilling the beans.

 

“Ah… Kirishima may have organised it with me 2 days ago” Akihito scratched the back of his neck, a nervous smile on his face. There was no way Asami wouldn’t get revenge now that he knew Akihito had been involved in the planning. Akihito shuddered, then scolding himself and pushed the thoughts of what Asami would do to him out of his mind, they weren’t thought that were suitable for a children’s theme park. Before Akihito’s brain could create anymore lewd images, Ryouta pulled him into a conversation – it seemed he was in the middle of a heated debate with Fuyumi and Yuki over which Disneyland was the best.

Their argument caught the attention of others in the queue, who snuck glances, then kept looking as they took in the strange group. Suoh was also dragged into the debate when he mentioned that Disneyland Park in California was the first Disneyland, and also the only one built under the supervision of Walt Disney himself. Suoh had always been one for pointless trivia, and he enjoyed watching the shock on people’s faces when the one they had brushed off as a large idiot could speak for one, and had more sense than he let on. Anyone who knew Asami would know that Suoh wouldn’t have become head of the security team just by being a loyal bag of muscle – but the ones that underestimated Suoh’s intelligence were the most amusing to play mind games with.

Having no intention of being dragged into an argument he didn’t understand, Asami turned away from the group and cast his eyes around the crowd, trying to find something to pass time. He found entertainment in watching a man struggle to translate his speech about the park into English for the foreign tourists sitting in the queue. Soon, it was 10 minutes to opening time and they were being ushered to stand and prepare to enter the park.   

Asami was sure the number of people doubled once they were in the park, they had been near the start of the queue yet there was already a sea of people ahead of them. Some of the park attendants stood holding signs politely requesting that people do not run and others (one wearing Mickey Mouse hands) high fived everyone that came near them. 

 

 “Yuki, look, it’s Olaf!” Fuyumi tugged on Yuki’s sleeve and pointed in the direction that Olaf was standing in, waving to people as they approached him. Led by the kids, they fought their way through the crowd that was moving towards the main section of the park and joined the group of people that had also been distracted by Olaf. Fuyumi squealed and waved furiously when Olaf spotted her and gestured for them to come over.

 

“Can we meet Elsa, please?” the girls pleaded simultaneously, Asami shot Akihito a confused glance – everyone else seemed to know what the girls meant, but Asami couldn’t understand why the girls were asking if they could meet someone he was sure was a fictional character. Akihito explained that they had character meets in the park, and there was no way of telling which character would appear – it was just their luck that it was Frozen. The girls had slowly drifted closer to Olaf, and now stood talking to a few other young children, all just as excited.

Asami couldn’t remember the last time he felt this relaxed (without his gun) in a crowded place. The park was highly guarded, and Asami was sure that no one would be able to come for his head, or Akihito’s, while they were in the park – but both he and Suoh were still on guard. In their line of work, it became an instinct that was impossible to turn off. They kept an eye on the girls, and the people that got near to them, while they continued to converse with Akihito and Ryouta.

 

“Why don’t we split, I can hit the rides with Ryouta, then meet up for an early lunch?” Ryouta was pleased with the idea, he didn’t want to meet princesses but knew how much his sister loved Elsa.

 

“Hopefully we won’t be queuing for 3 hours…” Suoh groaned, he could already see the little number that indicated the length of the queue in minutes growing steadily. 

 

“… That happens?” It seemed like a long time to queue to take a picture with a normal person dressed up as a fictional character, but judging from how excited the kids were and the amount of people running to join the queue – it was no surprise. 

 

“When Risa came here with Yuki they queued for 3 hours to get a picture with Cinderella…” Suoh was glad he hadn’t been there; he hated queues and hadn’t had to queue for anything since working for Asami. They had also gone during summer, summer in Japan was unbearably hot and humid – queuing up in those conditions sounded like torture to any sane person.

 

“Let’s go to Space Mountain!” Ryouta said once the girls disappeared into the queue, Asami and Suoh in tow. Ryouta would never admit that he loved Disneyland too, not as much as Fuyumi but he knew the names of all of the best rides in the park.

 

“Race you there!” Akihito yelled as he began running, Ryouta soon joined him, laughing as he went. During their 6 months of the streets, Ryouta had learned how to run faster and his stamina had improved dramatically. Ryouta had never thought much of his track skills before, they had always been for survival, where he had to run fast if he didn’t want to be caught and either thrown into prison or beaten up. But now, running alongside Akihito, Ryouta realised how much fun running could be.

They were both out of breathe by the time they entered the queue for Space Mountain. No one looked twice as they struggled to catch their breath, used to people running to get to rides before the queues got ridiculously long. It was 30 minutes before the end of the queue appeared, their lungs had long since stopped aching. Akihito pocketed his phone, which they had been using to play games on to pass the time, once they reached the front of the queue

 

“… They make it sound really scary and dangerous” now, without the distraction of games, Ryouta heard the announcement that had been drowned out as background noise before. Ryouta hadn’t be worried before, he had watched videos about the ride hundreds of times on Youtube, but the warnings about fast turns, sudden drops and about it not being suitable for pregnant women and people with back problems was more than a little concerning.

 

“That makes it more fun, come on, we’re on next” Akihito could sense Ryouta’s discomfort, it was only then that he remembered that Ryouta had probably never been on a ride before. Ryouta had mentioned some time ago that they had never been to a theme park, Akihito wasn’t sure if that included carnivals or the ‘pack away’ theme parks that sometimes appeared in parks or car-parks. Space Mountain may not have been the best place to start, the ride was in the dark meaning there was no way of knowing what twist and turns were coming up next. Akihito didn’t think Ryouta would appreciate his hand being held, so Akihito settled for a reassuring squeeze to the shoulder as they were buckled in. Ryouta’s apprehension only lasted for the first few twists of the ride, soon he was whooping with his arms in the air. All too soon the ride came to an end, they followed the strobe lights to the exit    

 

“That was awesome!” Ryouta was buzzing, and ready for the next ride – after being in the dark for so long, their eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the light.

 

“So, what next?” Akihito was glad Ryouta turned out to like rides; most of Akihito’s friends (Takato to name but a few) hated rides, so they hardly ever went to theme parks for their sake. Now he would have someone to go on rides with, and an excuse to drag them all to theme parks – Akihito was sure that Takato’s pride wouldn’t let him to wait by the exit while a 9 year old went on a ride that made his knees weak.

 

“Can we all go on Splash Mountain, Fuyumi is tall enough to go on it too” Splash Mountain was on the other side of the park; they made their way over quickly, narrowly avoiding being trapped by a parade. As expected, the queue was already ridiculously long, by now even the people that hadn’t been running had made it to their ride of choice. Akihito guided Ryouta over to the Fast Pass ticket station, glad that he had been assigned as the ticket holder. They got help from an assistant to collect all of the tickets then made their way over to the meeting area, the area of the park they had left the girls in. Akihito stopped at a locker on the way and stuffed the tote bag, along with anything else they wouldn’t need while in the park – he had planned to get rid of the extra baggage straight after entering the park but had gotten carried away in the excitement. They wandered around World Bazaar until Ryouta found a restaurant that sold foods suitable to eat as a late breakfast or early lunch.

Akihito sent Asami a text as soon as they found an empty table that would accommodate their whole group. The queue for the character meet couldn’t have been much longer than that of Space Mountain, as Asami entered the restaurant a few moments later. At some point they must have found a shop, because Fuyumi and Yuki now had matching Mini Mouse headbands.

 

“I have never had to queue so much in my life…” Asami said with a sign as he sat down. The children exchanged stories of their adventures while apart, pausing momentarily to give their food orders to Suoh. Once settled with their food, Akihito continued the conversation,

 

“Seriously, what do you just rent out everywhere you go?” Akihito was used to queuing, he had no problem with waiting for extended amounts of time – though he was sure that was something to do with his job. Compared to sitting completely still in a tree or hidden on a cold dirty roof for hours on end, queuing for rides, clubs or the cinema was a blessing.

 

“Yes,” was Asami’s instant response, “Or pay to skip the queue” Asami wondered if that was an option at Disneyland, he was sure paying the right people would allow them that privilege even if it wasn’t.

 

“No, you’re not bribing anyone!” Akihito hissed, he knew his lover too well not to know his thoughts, “Anyway, queuing is half of the fun. And if you plan it right, you won’t have to spend hours queuing” Akihito already had a basic plan of their day mapped out in his head, he knew from their ramblings in the limo which rides the kids favoured, and luckily there were many that they agreed on

 

“Its 10:30, it’s our turn to go on Splash Mountain!” it had felt like forever before their allocated timeslot arrived. Ryouta had been keeping an eye on the time as he ate, he wanted to go on as many rides as possible now that he had catch the thrill bug. With the light meal packed away, they made their way back across the park. This time, Ryouta led the way with Fuyumi and Yuki holding his hands, one on each side – they skipped along singing a new Disney song called ‘How Far It Goes’, they sang the words perfectly despite not knowing any English. They caught up to the children at the entrance of the ride where two park attendants stood checking the Fast Pass tickets

 

“Please explain to me why I have a ticket to this thing?” Asami asked as he was handed a Fast Pass ticket and ushered into the queue

 

“It’s the best ride here; you have to go on it!” The Fast Pass got them through the queue and to the boats in less than 10 minutes. Ryouta and Akihito bounced on the balls of their feet as the boat they’d be boarding approached, while Suoh and Asami stared at it in defeat.

 

“I thought I’d be too tall for all these kiddie rides” Suoh grumbled as he slid onto the boat, Asami joining him a few seconds later. Unfortunately, Disney seemed intent on making their rides ‘fun for everyone’, meaning there weren’t many height restrictions - even Fuyumi, despite being tiny, was able to get on all of the rides. Fuyumi sat with Yuki in the row in front of them, their heads barely visible – they shot slightly concerned glances at their parents as the boat began to move. The ride started out peacefully, they sailed through a story book setting – so Akihito momentarily forgot that he was on a ride, until a sudden drop took him by surprise. He screamed along with Ryouta, Fuyumi and Yuki,

 

“We heard it” Suoh said before Akihito could convince himself that no one had noticed, he had hoped his scream had been drowned out.

 

“Are you scared of this little ride, Akihito?” Asami couldn’t help the dig, he was sure that he’d have some bodily injury by now if Akihito was within reach

 

“No! It just shocked me, that’s all – there was no warning!” Akihito tried to argue his point, but was met with laughter – he was sure that that little moment of indignity would haunt him for years. The ride continued, this time Akihito stayed alert for the drops, most were in the dark, expect for the biggest drop, which made the drops hard to spot in the distance – the only tale-tell sign being the sudden disappearance of scenery. As they exited the ride, they were already planning for the next ride, and much to Asami’s surprise, Suoh joined in. They paused when they came to the photo centre,

 

“Look, it’s us” Ryouta found their picture in the top corner, one of the assistance bought it up on the screen that sat on the desk to give them a better view. Asami hadn’t noticed when the picture was taken, but he guessed it was at some point during the ride’s biggest drop. They all looked like they were enjoying themselves; neither Asami nor Suoh could deny it when there was photographic evidence of the smiles on their faces – though they would both argue that it was solely because they were laughing at Akihito screaming on a baby ride. The fear was gone from Fuyumi and Yuki’s faces in the picture as well, both had their hands in the air and mouths open in a silent screams. It was hard to tell if Akihito was laughing or screaming in the picture, and it was a similar story for Ryouta.

The picture would probably be used as blackmail material at some point, but Asami bought a copy for each of them anyway. Disneyland would be a (somewhat) pleasant memory for them all, a celebration of Ryouta and Fuyumi’s adoption. They spent the rest of the day in a similar way; they alternated between going on rides and watching the parades. Akihito adopted an effective system of getting Fast Pass tickets for the larger rides, and then using the time to shop, eat or go on rides with short queues before their timeslot. It meant that they spent a lot less time queuing, much to Asami’s relief – they were all happy to bypass the long queues.

As the closing parade ended, the last of the kids’ energy ran out. Both Yuki and Fuyumi were practically asleep on their feet, Suoh picked up his daughter and Akihito lifted Fuyumi into his arms as they fought their way through the crowd to the exit. Ryouta hung close to Asami, but didn’t grab onto Asami’s shirt until the 3rd time he almost got swept away with the crowd.

 

“Do you want me to carry you too?” Asami knew the answer would be no, but he could see how tired Ryouta was – they were still deep in the park and with all the people around it would take at least another 20 minutes for them to get out of the park and to where the limo would be waiting.

 

“What, no way – I’m not 5” Ryouta wanted to pull away and put as much distance between himself and Asami as possible, but he didn’t want to get lost in the fast moving crowd. Ryouta was glad that Asami was incredibly tall; it made spotting him in the crowd easy.

 

“I’ll give you a choice, you either willingly let me give you a piggyback ride or I’ll throw you over my shoulder and carry you that way” Asami weaved his way to the edge of the path where the human traffic stopped and was lined with people standing around waiting

 

“But… But I’m heavy” Ryouta whined, it was a pathetic last ditch attempt as he grabbed onto Asami’s shoulders

 

“I can carry Akihito, I assure you, I can carry you just fine” Asami said as he stood up, Ryouta securely on his back. He quickened his pace to catch up with Suoh and Akihito, who hadn’t made in more than a few paces before realising Asami was no longer behind them. It took them another 20 minutes to exit the park and find the pick-up location where the limo was waiting for them. The driver bowed to them when they approached the limo. Fuyumi and Yuki had fallen asleep at some point, and Ryouta joined them shortly after the limo started to move.

 

“Today was fun” Akihito vaguely remembered being taken to Disney when he was Ryouta’s age, and there were pictures of the trip dotted around his parent’s home. But today had been different, it was their first holiday as a family, and he was sure none of them would forget it. Akihito had seen those soft indulgent smiles on both Asami’s and Suoh’s faces as they watched their daughters wave to characters and sing along with the parade songs.

 

“… If I ever hear that Winter song again” Asami had thought Akihito was joking when he mentioned that there were parades every hour with the same song and dance each time. By the 3rd time, Asami was ready to shoot someone – even Akihito had grown tired of the parades by the afternoon. Though Asami had to admit, it had been fun – he had been expecting it to be some kind of cruel torture surrounded by sweet things and ribbons.

 

“Get used to it - that is parenthood in a nutshell” Suoh was glad he came, though he’d never admit it to Kei, and there was nothing that could get him to do it again.

 

 

*

 

 

Ryouta had been at Hanabusa Elementary for the past 2 weeks, but this morning felt different. So much had happened over the weekend. Now, Ryouta felt a comfort he had never known before – this wasn’t going to be a temporary school; he’d actually finish a whole year in one school. Akihito waved from the back of the limo as Ryouta stepped out, as usual a few eyes stopped to stare as Ryouta watched the limo drive away. Ryouta had heard from his classmates that the rumours about him were thick. It wasn’t the first time that Ryouta had rumours about him flying around, but it was the first time that the rumours debated whether he was the son of a celebrity or a Prince of a foreign country. He had even heard about one string of rumours labelling him as the 13th in line to the Danish throne. It didn’t help that since attending the school, Ryouta had been dropped off in 4 different cars – all costing the same as a house.

Ryouta was sure that the truth would come out eventually, but for now it was fun to listen to the elaborate stories. Classmates that he passed by the shoe lockers gave him welcoming smiles and warm greetings as they put on their indoor shoes. Ryouta took the time to memorise the faces he saw and the names he heard, he didn’t attempt to learn anyone’s names before, he had done so hundreds of times only to never see those people again.   

 

“Ryouta!” Charles yells once he spots his friend in the hall. Charles was the first person Ryouta remembered speaking to on his first day, while everyone had been curious about him, no one tried to strike up a conversation. It was the middle of the school year, everyone already had their friendship groups, they didn’t want to add a new person to their dynamic. Ryouta had been okay with that, it was better than being bullied and he had thought he’d be leaving Hanabusa within a few weeks - but Charles, who was in a similar situation, had approached Ryouta during the lunch break and had instantly claimed Ryouta as his new best friend. Charles was half British and half Japanese; he had been living in England up until the end of July that year.

 

“Charles, I’m getting adopted!” Ryouta had been planning to wait until lunch time, when their other friends were around, before spilling the secret but he was too excited to keep quiet

 

“Seriously, that’s amazing. Eh, wait, does that mean you are leaving?” Charles would be happy for Ryouta either way, but he wanted Ryouta to stay – they had only known each other for two weeks but Charles felt closer to him than anyone else in the school. Ryouta could relate to Charles’s struggle of being different in a homogeneous country, they both stuck out like a sore thumb. On their own, they would be seen as the weird outsiders but together, they were the cool foreign kids.

 

“Nope, Ryuichi-Nii-San and Aki-Nii-Chan, the adults that are looking after us now, are going to adopt us” Ryouta had told Charles about his old orphanage, running away with Fuyumi, living on the streets then finally getting found by Asami and Akihito. Charles had promised to keep it a secret. Asami mentioned that they cleared all proof of them being missing and didn’t report the theft at Braunii so Ryouta’s record would be clean, Ryouta didn’t want to do anything that would ruin all of that hard work.

 

“So you’re staying?” Charles asked, hardly waiting for Ryouta’s nod of confirmation before pulling his friend into a hug.

 

“Hey, come on – you’re going to ruin my ‘cool mysterious guy’ reputation!” despite his protests, Ryouta returned the hug.

 

“You came in a Lamborghini, most of the school think you’re a Prince and all the 6th graders have a crush on Akihito-san – trust me, nothing will ruin that” Charles was sure that everyone would still be talking about Ryouta in years to come – and from how Ryouta described the man, it would only get worse when they all saw Asami.

 

“Ugh, that was a mistake, but I think the limo was worse…” The constant staring was uncomfortable but Ryouta was slowly getting used to it, it felt like everyone in the school knew his name. And although the rumours were fun, being confronted with them was awkward, “Anyway, hurry up, we’re going to be late for class”

 

“But we have Japanese first period, I can’t read any of it, it’s such a pain” even though Charles’s Japanese was at around the same level as everyone else in the 4th grade – his reading level was that of a toddler. Charles could read Hiragana and some Katakana, but there was no hope with kanji. Charles’s mother was Japanese, and had made sure her son could speak her native language, but never bothered to teach him to read and write. There hadn’t been a need to, the family had had no intention of moving to Japan, that was until Charles’s father was transferred to the Japanese branch of the company he worked at.  

 

“I’ll help you if you help me with my English homework. Kei-Onii-San says that it’s important to know English” Ryouta had already decided that he wanted to run a business just like Asami, he had spent a lot of time in Sion and watching Asami do paperwork. Kirishima was always patient, he explained all the facts and figures of the business and let Ryouta help. There were even a few meetings that Ryouta had been allowed to attend; he had to admit that he was bored to tears but had behaved well and listened the whole time, the torture of sitting still for an hour had been worth it for the warm praise he got from Asami

 

“ _Okay, it’s a deal – I can teach you English, I speak it better than the teachers anyway”_ Charles said, switching to his native language and laughing the look of panic on Ryouta’s face. Ryouta had heard Charles say odd words in English, always basic words that he was familiar with – this was the first full sentence, and the language suddenly seemed daunting

 

“… What?” Ryouta had no point of driving meaning from the sentence; Charles had spoken way too fast to catch anything. Charles repeated himself in Japanese once he was calm enough to speak again, “Seriously?” Ryouta found it hard to believe, and a little scary, that even the teachers couldn’t fully get the hang of English

 

“Yeah, they looked really panicked the first time they saw me. _That_ Misaki hates me too, she couldn’t understand a word I said” Misaki got top marks in English, and had always shown off by speaking only in English around the teachers. Ryouta wished he had been there on Charles’s first day – he had heard the story from multiple people but Misaki was awful and it would have been great to have one up on her.

When Charles had appeared, Misaki’s classmates and a few of the teachers insisted the two become friends as it would make living in Japan easier for Charles if he had an English speaking companion. Charles’s pronunciation wasn’t textbook, and he spoke British English instead of the American English that they were taught as standard in school. Misaki’s English was heavily accented, and her pronunciation was off by Charles’s standards. More than once Misaki had accused Charles of using the wrong grammar or words – and once it was proved that arguing with a native speaker was a pointless move, she took to hating the English boy instead. As for the teachers, their pronunciation was a little off, and some of the example sentences they used sounded awkward and more than a little weird to Charles – but they often dragged Charles into help if they doubted their own pronunciation.

 

“What took you guys so long, come on everyone’s talking about the Winter Festival – we’re picking our class activity tomorrow, remember?” Tamaki, one of the boys in Ryouta and Charles’s class said as he saw the duo enter the room. Everyone was sat in a circle surrounding a makeshift workstation that had been made by pushing the desks together. Their form tutor was nowhere to be seen, Ryouta wasn’t sure if they had been left alone to give them all time to plan, or if Kobayashi-sensei was running late and everyone was taking advantage of the free time. It seemed that the class had already picked their top 5 options, and were having a heated debate on their favourite. This wasn’t the first time Ryouta had seen the process of a school festival, he had been in classes during the discussions and had even attended some festivals. But he had never planned an event; he had always stayed out of that part because he knew he wouldn’t be there for the festival.

This time, with prompting from his friends, Ryouta joined in the discussion. He laughed along with his classmates and volunteered for jobs. When Kobayashi-sensei burst into the room, everyone quickly took their seats – rearranging the room back to its normal state within a few seconds and hid all of the evidence. They giggled to themselves, stealing glances at the classmates that were next to them, as if it were a big secret. It had only been two weeks, but Ryouta felt like he belonged in this class – he wasn’t ‘that orphan boy’ or ‘the transfer student’, he was a member of their group now. For once, Ryouta could plan for the future knowing that he’d be a part of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea if Teletubbies were even a thing in Japan, but I couldn't think of a Japanese equivalent...

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like I ended this really abruptly... I was trying to go for a smooth ending but they're all too stubborn to let that happen... (This is a hot mess and I'm sorry)  
> If you see any mistakes please feel free to point them out to me, I couldn't focus on the screen while I was editing this so it's probably terrible.  
> Also, I'm British so here 'sweets' means 'candy' etc., and there are probably other terms I've used that aren't used in other countries (sorry *sweat drop*).
> 
> I'm returning to my bat cave.


End file.
